Golfer Brandt Snedeker let his emotions flow on Mother’s Day after winning on the PGA Tour for the first time in eight years, which also marked his first victory since the death of his mother, Candice.
“Your mom is smiling down right now on you, buddy,” Snedeker’s caddie, Heath Holt, told him after he secured the win at the Myrtle Beach Classic on Sunday, May 10. “I’m so happy for you, bro. Congratulations, man. All your hard work. What a comeback.”
Snedeker, 46, the US Team Captain for the upcoming 2026 Presidents Cup, was clearly overwhelmed by the moment, wiping away tears with the towel from his golf bag. “Happy Mother’s Day,” Holt said.
“Jesus Christ,” Snedeker responded, as he continued to cry.
The victory was Snedeker’s 10th career win on the PGA Tour and his first since the Wyndham Championship in August 2018.
Snedeker’s mother, Candice, died of a heart attack in October 2020. She was 73 years old.
Eight months later, in June 2021, Snedeker’s father, Larry, died after being diagnosed with cancer.
“It was a long year. It was a tough year,” Snedeker said in January 2022. “I spent every minute I had with him, knowing it wasn’t going to be long. It just wears you down. It’s tough to focus, tough to concentrate, tough to get motivated.”
He added, “You’re living out of a suitcase and thinking of all kinds of stuff. It was a tough year [for] me and my brother. But we got through it. I’m ready to start fresh.”
After the deaths of his parents, Snedeker explained he dealt with his grief the only way he knew how: on the golf course.
“I tried to keep my mind occupied [by playing], which probably wasn’t the smartest thing in the world,” Snedeker said in 2022. “I didn’t know how else to deal with it.”
Following his long-awaited victory in Myrtle Beach on Sunday, Snedeker admitted he didn’t know if the moment would ever come again.
“There’s points in the last couple of years I didn’t think I could win again,” Snedeker said. “My golf game wasn’t very good. My body wasn’t feeling great. Lots of self-doubt. Lots of, you know, what am I doing?”
He continued, “I did the only thing I knew how to do: get back to work. That’s all you can do. Quit looking around for solutions and look for answers. That’s what I tell people all the time. I don’t want excuses. I need solutions for problems. The solution was to get back to work and do what I love to do. And every time I did it, I kept getting a little bit better and a little bit better and a little bit better and my confidence started growing, and I felt like I could play.”
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