Brandt Snedeker Back on Tour Following Bizarre Experimental Surgery

DUBLIN, Ohio — Brandt Snedeker is back after eight months off due to an experimental surgery in which he essentially had his sternum broken and had to wait for it to heal.

Snedeker, 42, the winner of nine PGA Tour events, hasn’t played since the Fortinet Challenge in September after which he opted for a surgery his surgeon didn’t even want to do. Snedeker’s sternum had been bothering him for several years, and he finally felt he had no choice.

“He didn’t want to do it, but all the other options involved steel plates and rods and screws and all that kind of stuff and he was big time anti-this and anti-that," said Snedeker of Dr. Burton Elrod in Nashville, Tenn. “And I didn’t think that would solve the problem. I thought it would just move the pain elsewhere.

“So it took some convincing, because he didn’t want to do it again. He did it one time. Finally convinced him to do it and I think it’s the best-case scenario so far."

The only other time Elrod performed the surgery was on Steve McNair, the late quarterback for the Tennessee Titans.

Snedeker, who had the surgery on Dec. 1, said Elrod “kind of broke my sternum on purpose, cut my sternum open and then kind of reattached it." Snedeker wasn’t able to do anything for four months and didn’t hit balls until April 1. It was only at the beginning of May that Snedeker began to ramp up his golf activity.

Called "manubrium joint instability," Snedeker said it’s a rare malady that would normally be associated with someone who was in a car crash. He said there was no traumatic incident and simply believes it was an accumulation of golf swings over time.

“I managed it to the point where I couldn’t play without pain any more and I was tired of dealing with it," he said.

Snedeker, whose last victory was at the 2018 Wyndham Championship, is playing on what is called a minor medical extension. It means he has four events to earn 144 FedEx Cup points. If he accomplishes that, he could then play the rest of the season on a major medical extension.

At No. 21 on the all-time career money list, Snedeker could use a one-time exemption next year for top-25 all-time money winners. Or he could use sponsor exemptions and his status as a Tour winner to get into events.

But for now, it’s a matter of simply getting back to playing again.

“At some point you have to jump into the deep end and see if it worked out or not and this felt like a good week to do it," said Snedeker, who was given a sponsor invite to play this week. “So I didn’t want to kind of dip my toe in at an easy place to do it. I wanted to find out at a tough place and I figured this is the best way to do it.

“So excited to be back, excited to back here on Tour and I couldn’t think of a better place than Jack’s (Nicklaus) place."