Brett Patterson began the final round of the Snedeker Memorial four strokes off the lead.
Simon Bruty, USGA
Brett Patterson, the two-time reigning Mississippi Mid-Amateur champion, defeated former PGA Tour pro Bobby Wyatt in a playoff to win the Snedeker Memorial in Point Clear, Alabama, on Sunday. Battling from behind, Patterson prevailed with a 20-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole on the Dogwood course at the Lakewood Club after he and Wyatt finished at 7-under-par 209.
“It feels incredible,” said Patterson, a University of Mississippi accounting professor. “I would say personally it’s probably the biggest event I’ve won in my career.”
After rounds of 72-69, Patterson entered the final round at 3-under, four strokes behind the leader Winburne Hughes.
“Winburne has been playing really well the last couple months,” Patterson said. “I knew I was going to have to put together a good round.”
When Hughes birdied the first two holes on Sunday, it looked like he’d run away with the championship. But his game stalled, and bogeys on Nos. 6 and 8 dropped him back to 7-under.
Meanwhile, his player partner Patterson was making an erratic charge. With five birdies, three bogeys and only two pars in his first 10 holes, Patterson was at 5-under, only two strokes behind Hughes.
“Going into the back nine I wasn’t even thinking of winning per se,” Patterson said. “I was just trying to get to somewhere around 3- or 4-under par and if that wasn’t good enough so be it.”
A Patterson bogey on the 14th dropped him three strokes back with four to play.
After a Hughes bogey on the 15th hole, Hughes and Patterson entered the pivotal par-5 16th hole at 7-under and 5-under, respectively. Then, a group ahead on the same hole, Wyatt made an eagle to move to 6-under.
Needing a big moment, Patterson stuck his second shot on the par-5 to about 5 feet and made eagle to tie the lead.
“When I made eagle on 16 that was the first time I checked scores all day,” Patterson said.
When Wyatt birdied the 17th, he, Hughes and Patterson were in a three-way tie for the lead. But Hughes fell from contention with a bogey on the 17th hole.
After matching pars on the first playoff hole, Patterson set up his winning birdie with a wedge shot to 20 feet. With the victory, Patterson secured an exemption into the Palmetto Amateur in November.
While Wyatt came up short in the individual championship, he and his partner Vince Cave won the team championship by three strokes over the teams of Haymes Snedeker/John Wright and Hughes/Jeff Reuter. The victory earned Wyatt and Cave an exemption into the Picard Cup at Canterbury Golf Club in Ohio in August.
RESULTS
Everett Munez
Miles Russell and Asterisk Talley became the first multiple winners of the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley on Saturday in Graniteville, South Carolina.
Russell, ranked No. 1 in the Rolex AJGA Boys Rankings, made two eagles in a closing 67 and finished 15-under par, three strokes ahead of Tyler Watts. He started the final round three strokes behind Watts.
“It’s pretty special,” Russell said of his consecutive Junior Invitational victories. “Especially at a place like this that has so much class. You’re just lucky to be here. So, to be able to [win] back to back, it’s quite an honor.”
Talley, ranked second in the Rolex AJGA Girls Rankings, also shot 67 and won by three strokes over Anna Iwanaga. Talley won her first Junior Invitational in 2024.
“It feels great,” said Talley. “It gives me a lot of confidence on such a tough course to be able to do it twice. It’s just so nice to win here again.”
Since its inception in 2011, the Junior Invitational boasts an illustrious roster of boys winners including Scottie Scheffler (2014), Joaquin Niemann (2017), Akshay Bhatia (2018), Tom McKibbin (2019) and Aldrich Potgieter (2023). The girls championship started in 2022 and its winners include Anna Davis (2023).
Despite significant turmoil in the relationship between the National Links Trust and the Trump administration over the trust’s stewardship of three daily-fee golf courses in Washington, D.C., the 2026 National Links Trust Championship will be played.
The championship for public-access male and female golfers aged 25 and older is slated for Oct. 16–18 at Northwest Golf Course in Silver Spring, Maryland. Following three years at the historic Blue Course at East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, the new venue is a 1964 Ed Ault design owned and operated by Montgomery County, Maryland. The tournament will comprise 54 holes of stroke-play competition, making it eligible for World Amateur Golf Ranking points.
“We are eager to continue building a legacy of accessibility and affordability in the elite amateur game with this event,” said Sinclair Eaddy Jr., tournament chairman and member of the USGA Executive Committee. “The last three years have proven that there is an appetite amongst everyday public players to test their skills against the best of their peers from across the country. To be able to continue hosting this event in partnership with the Amateur Golf Alliance is exciting.”
Staff and wire reports
