We know he wasn’t Shanghaied but mystery still surrounds American Brandt Snedeker’s withdrawal from the Australian PGA Championship on Tuesday.
The first big tournament of the Australian golf summer was stung by the news the world No.9 – and the second-highest ranked player in the field – wouldn’t be teeing off at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast on Thursday.
Snedeker’s manager rang Australian PGA chief executive Brian Thorburn after arriving in Brisbane to deliver the news the 32-year-old was out after injuring a knee.
Early rumours Snedeker had been involved in a car accident were ruled out but all that could be said was the injury had been suffered during an outing in China following last week’s World Golf Championships event in Shanghai.
It’s believed the injury isn’t serious although it was enough for the American to withdraw from the only tournament he was scheduled to play in Australia.
“All I’ve got at the moment is that it happened while on an outing in China. That could be anything,” Thorburn said.
“We obviously would have liked him to have been here but, when you’ve got Adam Scott fronting the field, it’s still going to be an extremely successful championship.
“It’s just one of those things that happen in tournaments – withdrawals take place.”
The news means world No.3 and hometown hero Adam Scott is the only player inside the world’s top 40 for this week’s tournament.
While organisers were disappointed, it was a good day for Victorian journeyman Ryan Haywood, who took a call amongst the Melbourne Cup crowd at Flemington to be told he’d been given the American’s spot in the field for the $1.25 million event.
American Rickie Fowler is now the second-best ranked player in the field and the 24-year-old believes there’s no reason he can’t justify that status this weekend.
Veteran Peter Senior and Peter Lonard are the only past PGA Championship winners in a field missing several big Australian names due to this week’s US PGA Tour event in Georgia.
Organisers will be hoping Scott and Fowler can spark a shootout at what is the first PGA Championship to be held at the flat Royal Pines course.
“This week I’d definitely say he’s the guy to beat,” Fowler said of Scott.
“There’s also going to be a lot of good local Aussie players here and I’m sure there are some guys that are ready to go out there and take some shots at both Adam and I.
“I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be a fun week and looking forward to hopefully playing against some of the good local guys down here and Adam on Sunday.”
In the first round draw announced late on Tuesday, Scott will tee off with Jim Jeong and Richard Green while Fowler will be joined by Marc Leishman and Michael Hendry.
