Why did Brandt Snedeker need surgery? Exploring the golfer’s injury status

As of the first day at the 3M Open 2023 held at TPC Twin Cities, Minnesota, American professional golfer Brandt Snedeker is tied for second place on the leaderboard with three other players. They are all one stroke behind the current leader, Lee Hodges.

The 42-year-old golfer is playing his sixth event in 2023 after returning from a post-surgery rehab. In December 2022, he underwent surgery to treat his sternum injury which he had been suffering from 2016.

In an interview with the Golf Channel, Snedeker shared that he had to convince Dr. Burton Elrod to perform an 'experimental' surgery, which according to the golfer will move his pain elsewhere.

Brandt Snedeker also shared that Dr. Elrod was earlier hesitant to do the surgery as he had earlier done once on Late Steve McNair, an American NFL player. But somehow he agreed after the golfer said that he will not have a career otherwise.

As quoted by Golf Channel, Snedeker said,

"I told him, 'You have to do it. I don't have a career otherwise."

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How did Brandt Snedeker supper from the sternum injury?

Technically, the sternum injury that the American golfer suffered is called 'manubrium joint instability', a very rare condition. The reason behind the condition could be a fatal car accident, but, as per Brandt Snedeker, he might have developed it due to extensive golf swings over time. He first experienced major pain in the 2017 US Open, a tournament he had to withdraw midway due to the same.

He had the 'experimental' procedure done on December 1, 2022. According to him, Dr. Burton Elrod first broke his sternum, then, cut opened it to finally reattach it. However, the golfer shared that it did not leave him in any pain.

As quoted by Golf Channel, he said,

"Of course, I pulled out a 9-iron and hit one. I didn't feel any pain, and I knew at that point that before the surgery I would have felt pain. I was like, OK, I think this worked."

Initially, for the first four months, Brandt Snedeker could do nothing. Later on April 1, after being cleared to play golf, he picked up his golf clubs and started to hit 30 balls a day.

After last playing in September 2022, at the Fortinet Championship, Snedeker returned to competitive golf in June 2023, at the Memorial Tournament and finished T41 on the leaderboard. In 2023, he has played five tournaments and has missed the cut in the last four tournaments consecutively.

Brandt Snedeker has won nine tournaments on the PGA Tour, with the last victory coming in 2018 at the Wyndham Championship. He has also participated in all four golf majors, before 2022. His best performance came at the Masters Tournament in 2008 and The Open Championship in 2012, he finished tied third in both of them.