Brandt Snedeker won the Farmers Insurance Open in a playoff not even he thought was possible.
Kyle Stanley led by seven shots early in the final round Sunday, and he still had a four-shot lead as he stood on the 18th tee at Torrey Pines. Just like that, he went from being anointed a rising star to a meltdown that ranks among the most shocking in golf.
Snedeker, in the group ahead of him, hit wedge to a foot for birdie and a 67, then drove up to the media tent for an interview as the runner-up. He arrived in time to watch Stanley spin a wedge into the water, then three-putt from 45 feet for a triple-bogey 8 and a 74.
Two playoff holes later, both were in shock.
Snedeker's tee shot hopped over the green and would have gone into a canyon except that it bounced off a television tower. He chipped to about 5 feet and made the par. Stanley three-putted again from just outside 45 feet, his 5-foot par putt catching the right lip.
"It's just crazy," Snedeker said. "To get my mind around what happened the last 30 minutes is pretty hard to do right now. My heart is out to Kyle. I feel bad for him to have to go through this."
Stanley, whose power, poise and polish was on display all week, was reduced to tears. His eyes were glassy and his lip quivered as he tried to answer questions, a sad ending to an otherwise spectacular week along the Pacific bluffs.
"It's not a hard golf hole," Stanley said. "I could probably play it a thousand times and never make an 8."
Stanley birdied his first two holes — Snedeker was nine behind at that point — and led by six shots at the turn until he started dropping shots from the sand. Even so, he made three straight par putts, starting with a 12-footer on the 14th, to seemingly regain control.
ABU DHABI GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP: Robert Rock held his nerve to beat U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for the biggest win of the Englishman's career.
The 117th-ranked Rock shot a 2-under 70 for an overall 13-under 275 to beat the 22-year-old Northern Irishman by a shot and the 14-time major winner by two. Woods finished in a tie for third with Thomas Bjorn and Graeme McDowell.
Woods started the final round tied for the lead with the unheralded Rock. He appeared poised to win his second tournament in a row after ending a two-year winless drought with victory last month at the Chevron World Challenge.
But the control Woods displayed for much the weekend abandoned him Sunday and it was Rock who held it together down the stretch.
"I hit the ball good enough to win the golf tournament this week," Woods said. "Today I just didn't give myself enough looks at it."
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