Snedeker smarter after last year's BMW snafu

It wasn't pretty to watch.

In fact, it was downright excruciating.

Ding, dong, bing, bang - ugh, 4 putts from 12 feet.

Now imagine you were Brandt Snedeker, the guy going through it all on the 18th hole at Cog Hill in the final round of the BMW Championship a year ago, a debacle that cost him a trip to the Tour Championship, the final event of the FedEx Cup playoffs, and nearly $200,000 in bonus money.

"I just showed you why 3-footers that mean something are a lot longer than they look," a dejected Snedeker said after his four-banger.

And to think he was on the green in 3 and just needed a par or bogey from 12 feet to advance. His par putt went past the hole and left him a 3-footer for bogey, but he missed. And then he shanked the tap-in and wound up with a 4-putt triple bogey.

"It's beyond hard to watch," is how NBC's Dan Hicks described the scene.

But now, courtesy of a solid performance over the weekend at the Deutsche Bank Championship, Snedeker is back and no doubt will be reminded of his adventure of a year ago time and again.

"When you all bring it up, but not really," he said when asked how often he thinks about it. "It's kind of funny now looking back on it. It's one of those things that for about a week stung, but now looking back on it I feel I'm a little bit stronger mentally to deal with something like that than I was, so I feel better about it now."

And ready to exact some revenge.

"Yeah, exactly," he said. "It would really be nice to come back and play well this week and take care of that and not have to worry about 4-putting the last hole like I did last year.

"But that's what makes the FedEx Cup great. It has those kind of stories. You put a little bit more extra pressure on yourself than you normally should. I learned from last year, and hopefully this year I won't make the same mistake."