The Masters 2013: Is Brandt a brand you can rely on?

One to oppose this week?

Romilly Evans looks at the flip-flopping fortunes of Brandt Snedeker and ponders if his stock will rise or fall

Fingers crossed, the sun's going to be around for a while. However, that asteroid which recently crash-landed in the Russian backwater of Chelyabinsk has already had its light extinguished from the universe. 

In golfing terms, if Tiger Woods is the ever-present solar force holding the game in his thrall, Brandt Snedeker is perhaps the meteor which lit up the sky for a while only to fade to black.

Suggestions of Snedeker's demise would naturally seem greatly exaggerated. Especially as he's the current world number five and was arguably the best golfer on the planet until the a few weeks ago. But a few weeks ago, the world did rather flip on its axis.  

For not only has Woods reasserted his stance at the helm of the game with back-to-back victories in big events, but Snedeker has also fallen victim to a rib injury on his lower-left side. Torso damage is de rigeur in golf, you might retort, yet the wound could not have come at a worse time for Sneds with major season fast-approaching.

Further, in a sport where trusting your swing is paramount, the likeable American has suffered a hit to his self-belief potentially more damaging than any strike to his solar plexus. After all, confidence allied to perhaps the most consistent putting stoke on tour propelled Snedeker to the Fedex Cup and a spot on Davis Love's Ryder Cup team at the back-end of 2012.

It was as impressive as it was impromptu. The 32-year-old posted two wins and four more top-three finishes in nine successive PGA-sanctioned tournaments (33 of his 36 rounds were under par). But as soon as he had arrived, his ribs derailed him and he took four weeks out on the treatment table. Since his return, despite some redemptive putting near the top of the stats, Snedeker has failed to make an impact with back-to-back missed cuts at Bay Hill and Houston.

A knee-jerk diagnosis of terminal decline would seem premature in the extreme, especially when you consider he was also suffering from a bout of food poisoning the week before his official return. However, golf is littered with tales of players who flourished when the muse was with them before receding back into the halls of obscurity from which they came. Snedeker may appear to hold the cornerstone of long-term durability (on tour, that's more commonly referred to as a brilliant short game) but his iron-play is decidedly second-rate when compared to his first-rate rivals.

In short, he appears America's answer to Ian Poulter - a man making the most of his limited ball-striking talents in a sport increasingly prioritising his trump card: the flat-stick. Like Poults, though, Sneds has flirted with major contention (third at the 2008 Masters and the 36-hole leader at the Open last year) only to fall short in the province of the precise iron.

Despite his lacklustre recent efforts, he remains popular in the outright market for The Masters, tenth-in at 3837/1 to back. To my mind, he is well short on the assurance and ability required to win at Augusta and may struggle to rediscover his form over the remaining course of the campaign. In a wildly fluctuating market, now is the time to sell his stock.

Snedeker's gossamer-like touch will see him pop up on tour now and again. However, his world-beating form may prove the proverbial comet which burnt itself out, having dazzled for a brief yet spectacular moment. After a display of the sublime and the ridiculous at Augusta in 2008, he famously broke down on TV discussing his implosion to Trevor Immelman during that final round. And there may be more tears than joy to come this year.

In fact, Snedeker may already have had his days in the sun.

Recommended Bet 
Lay Snedeker @ 4.03/1 to finish in the top 10