The location was New Orleans, but it could have been the Borscht Belt when Keith Mitchell AND Brandt Snedeker stepped onto the podium on Tuesday ahead of this week’s Zurich Classic.
Partners in the team event at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, the two veteran Tour pros and close friends joined in what amounted to a quirky routine, smiling as they fielded questions as they talked to each other about their games.
The crux of their banter: Mitchell can’t hit a putt and Snedeker can’t keep it in the plane with his driver.
“We’re close enough where we’re not going to offend each other this week,” Snedeker said. “We can’t hurt each other’s feelings.”
But because things are only funny until someone eats, the conversation took a more serious turn when Snedeker was asked about a serious topic: grain.
Ah yes, grain. The golfers’ hobgoblin of the South Swing, blamed for every weak and weak shot from Florida to Louisiana and beyond. Or so you would think when you tune into the television coverage of PGA Tour the events.
“Was it the grain that got him, Johnny?” (Or Bones. Or Dottie.) The phrase is used so often it could be the basis of a drinking game.
But how influential is grain, really?
Ask some supervisors and they’ll tell you it is impact is overrated. The grass varieties are so well-bred, the argument goes, and the greens are mowed so heavily—especially for elite events—that the grasses are virtually non-existent. Or, rather, it exists more in the mind of the player than on the putting surface.
Snedeker must have given it a lot of thought. Like his friend, Mitchell, he grew up in Tennessee. Unlike Mitchell, he became one of the greatest players of his generation, honing his signature pop stroke on the sweeping Bermuda grass.
So how does Snedeker deal with wheat?
“I think wheat is a really hard thing to quantify,” Snedeker said. There is no formula for it, no metric that tells you how many inches of break to add to the putt feet when the grain grows left or right.
“You have to have more feel,” Snedeker said. And developing feel takes time and practice, “getting out on the greens and getting comfortable with them,” Snedeker continued. “It’s one of those things, like, hey, if you see a putt that’s pretty straight and the grain is going right, hey, man, let’s play this thing inside left just because the grain might pull it a little bit.”
The bottom line is that crossgrain shooting can be frustrating, no matter how experienced or skilled you are. Some days, you get the feeling. Some days, you don’t.
“If you’re a little off, you’re going to hit a lot of shots to the right or left end and you’re going to drive yourself crazy,” Snedeker said.
To maintain his sanity and his output, Snedeker doesn’t get too grainy, at least not when it comes to his impact on the break. He finds it more productive to focus on rhythm.
“The biggest account is more in wheat, cereals,” he said. “Into the grain is going to be really slow. The growth of the wheat is going to be really fast. Those are the things you really pay attention to.”
And if all else fails, you go back to tearing your partner down. “We’re not shy about giving each other a needle here,” Snedeker said. “So I think having a partner where you have someone you’re comfortable with can create a need and have fun with how bad they hit that day.”
Mitchell agreed.
“Hopefully he doesn’t drive it like me, and hopefully I don’t drive it like him and we’ll be in good shape,” he said.
