There are likely few players on the PGA Tour who have used the same putter for more than 20 years. Heck, there are a bunch who were toddlers when Brandt Snedeker put an Odyssey Rossie White Hot XG into his bag. The putter and Snedeker’s poppy putting stroke were part of his nine tour victories, and he was considered among the game’s best players with the flat stick.
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But as Snedeker, now 45, has aged and had to overcome injuries, including an experimental surgery on his chest, all facets of his game have suffered, including his putting. As his winless drought reached seven full seasons in 2025, and he began this year’s campaign with four missed cuts, Snedeker had to consider a drastic change.
“If I’m not putting good, it’s going to be really hard for me to compete against these guys,” he said.
So in his most recent start two weeks ago in the Puerto Rico Open, Snedeker put away the Odyssey he used for 23 years and went to the TaylorMade Spider Tour X mallet that so many golfers have found success with on tour. Though he missed the cut, he liked how it felt, and the switch has had an enormous impact on his play this week in the Valspar Championship.
Snedeker leads the field in strokes gained/putting, gaining a whopping 8.6 shots through three rounds, and after shooting a bogey-free five-under-par 67 on Saturday on the Innisbrook Copperhead Course, he and David Lipsky (70) are tied for second at nine under, two shots behind Sungjae Im (69).
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There are deep backstories for each of the players in the final threesome. Lipsky, 37, is still searching for his first tour win in his 145th start, and Im, 27, is back from a layoff of several months after he injured his wrist hitting off cold ground late last year. The two-time tour winner had struggled in his return, missing the cut in his only two starts leading into the Valspar.
But it’s Snedeker who figures to draw the warmest sentiment of the gallery on Sunday in Palm Harbor, Fla. The affable Nashville native has been among the most popular players on tour for two decades, and his achievements are significant, including Snedeker capturing the FedEx Cup in 2012. This fall, he’ll be the highly visible captain for the U.S. Presidents Cup team when it takes on the Internationals at Medinah.
In terms of his putting, Snedeker said on Saturday that the club change already has had an enormous impact.
“It really kind of kick started my game,” he said. “Really started putting the ball really, really well this week and giving myself chances, hitting my lines. And when you putt well, the rest of the game gets really easy. So it’s been a lot of fun to play stress-free golf, because I know if I get on the green somewhere I got a chance of making a putt, which is a lot of fun.”
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Snedeker has been in need of positive reinforcement for some time. He went through a period of terrible pain in the early 2020s because a joint in his sternum was separating. Desperate for relief, Snedeker essentially begged his surgeon to perform an experimental surgery—the doctor had done it only one previous time—in which a “dowel” created with bone from his hip was placed to stabilize the sternum. That was in late 2022 and it took him eight months to return to play in mid-2023.
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Brandt Snedeker shares a laugh with Gary Woodland during th third round of the Valspar Championship.
James Gilbert
Since then, Snedeker’s health has been excellent. “Probably the best it’s been in 10 years out here,” he said. “I feel really good. My energy level’s really high.”
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His golf has been a work in progress. Snedeker’s last win came in the 2018 Wyndham Championship, when he opened with a 59. In the last three years, he’s played 62 events and posted only three to-10s, all in 2025. Once a top-10 player in the world, his ranking has fallen to 306.
His motivation to win hasn’t dampened.
“I think I’m probably just dumb enough to realize that I think I can still compete,” Snedeker said. “I feel like I can still play with these guys. Obviously, has to be the right conditions, the right golf course for me anymore, but I still think I can. And on days like today, it gives me hope to go back out there and keep grinding.”
After his round on Thursday, talk inevitably turned to Snedeker’s Presidents Cup captaincy. It was playfully suggested that he could create a Keegan Bradley Ryder Cup captaincy condundrum if he kept playing well.
Snedeker laughed and shut that down quickly.
“Let’s not even talk crazy here,” he said. “There’s no chance, no chance.”
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