The Limerick Summary: 2016 Fiji International

Winner: Brandt Snedeker

Around the wider world of golf: Yuta Ikeda won the Honma Tourworld Cup on the Japan Golf Tour; Poom Saksansin won the BNI Indonesian Masters on the Asian Tour; Jay Haas won the Toshiba Classic on the Champions Tour; Ha Na Jang won the Fubon LPGA Taiwan Championship on the LPGA; Beth Allen won the Lacoste Ladies Open de France on the LET; Tyrrell Hatton won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on the ET (Danny Willett and his caddie won the pro-am portion); and Curtis Luck won the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship.



This was a tough Limerick Summary to do, simply because I couldn't decide which tournament should get it. Had things gone as planned, the Web.com Tour Championship would have gotten it because of the 25 Tour cards being awarded. Instead, Hurricane Matthew interfered and that event was cancelled, as was the IOA Golf Classic on the Symetra Tour.

And then it seemed as if every event being played around the planet might be a blowout and a potential record performance. However, most of the leaders stumbled at the last moment:

• Jay Haas had a 5-stroke lead to start the final round at the Toshiba Classic, but was forced to birdie the 18th in a playoff to win the thing. However, he did become the second-oldest winner ever on the Champions Tour -- just two months shy of 63 years old.
• Ha Na Jang had a 6-stroke lead at the LPGA's Taiwan event, despite tough conditions, but could only beat a hard-charging Shanshan Feng by a single stroke. However, it was Jang's third win of the year -- only Lydia Ko and Ariya Jutanugarn have more.
• Tyrrell Hatton had a 3-stroke lead at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Hatton didn't stumble like the rest. He did manage to increase his lead and win by four strokes, and this was his first-ever win, so it was pretty impressive. However, it wasn't the most impressive win this week.

No, that honor went to Brandt Snedeker. After a fairly emotional win at the Ryder Cup last week, where he won three out of three matches, all Brandt did was fly 7000 miles to Fiji for the Fiji International, an event co-sponsored by the ET and the Australasian Tours and hosted by Vijay Singh. The course was windy and he wasn't familiar with it. But somehow he managed to start the final round with a three-stroke lead and win by nine.

Yes, you read that correctly. He won the event by NINE strokes. It's the biggest winning margin at any ET event this year. And it's his second victory this season -- you may remember that little windblown Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

And this was his first-ever European Tour win as well. In fact, it's his first international win ever. I know it's hard to believe but it's true.

So you can see why Sneds got the nod this week. The other players got nice wins -- especially Hatton, with that breakthrough win -- but nobody strutted their stuff better than Brandt Snedeker. So here you go, Brandt... ENJOY!

Now his Cup runneth over, it seems—
Why, just look at how Snedeker beams!
First a Hazeltine win,
Then he wins once again;
Brandt is living the sweetest of dreams.

The photo came from this page at europeantour.com.