Ed Sneed looks back on a near-miss
How did losing that tournament affect your life?
I probably had played the tour longer. I don't think it made me a different person. I often said that nobody died in my response. I had a chance to win a big golf tournament, and I didn't. It had an impact, but at the same time I never felt it broke me in any way.
Looking at the final round recently, it seemed like there were no shots on the last three holes that you would want to take back, except for the 18 approach that the green missed. Is that right?
That's right. I've always heard, "Well, you hit right at 16." I didn't hit 16. I hit right. I don't know why the ball didn't bounce to the left. On 17, [where his approach finished a few yards over the green] I discovered that the next year I had the wrong yardage with three or four yards.
You thought the putt was 18, didn't you?
I thought the putt would barely go to the right. So I hit the ball on the left side of the cup. And when it was about two meters away, it seemed like it had moved a little bit to the hole. I thought it went well, and then it hung on the left. It looked like a quarter of the ball was hanging above the hole.
The following year, I played a practice round on Wednesday afternoon after the Par 3 tournament. I was alone. I started at 10 o'clock. On the 11th green, Hord Hardin, the [acting] tournament president, told me: "Ed, that was hard luck last year, but we feel that you have waited about 12 seconds to type in, and under the rules you had only 10, and if it had fallen, we would have had a dilemma and probably should have punished a blow. "