Brandt Snedeker is a surprise winner at Farmers Open

Reporting from La Jolla -- As much as this day should be about the winner, it’s as much about the loser.

Brandt Snedeker, who plays golf as if it’s a lightning round — whoever hits the quickest wins — pounded in a five-foot putt on the second playoff hole Sunday to win the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines and a check for $1,080,000.

It is the third PGA Tour victory of his career, and it comes after Snedeker had two hip surgeries in the last two years.

And yet Snedeker kept his celebration low-key because next to him at the end was Kyle Stanley, a long-hitting 24-year-old who held a three-stroke lead going into his final hole of regulation.

All Stanley needed to do was score a seven on the par-five No. 18 and he would have become the first wire-to-wire winner of this tournament since Johnny Miller in 1982.

Stanley held a five-shot lead at the start of the third round and a seven-shot advantage over Snedeker, and by the time Stanley birdied the first two holes, he was nine beyond Snedeker.

And yet it was Stanley who sat in a media tent Sunday afternoon while the lawnmowers were already out grooming the Torrey Pines South course, with his hands shaking and tears gathering.

In a wavery voice, Stanley described how he had a triple-bogey eight on the final regulation hole and how he couldn’t make a five-foot par putt on the par-three No. 16, the second playoff hole, after Snedeker had made his.

Stanley and Snedeker had finished the four regulation rounds at 16-under 272. The first playoff hole was the 18th again, and both birdied.

Stanley, from Gig Harbor, Wash., and in his second year on the PGA Tour, dabbed at his eye before he said, “It’s tough. I mean, it’s really tough to take.”

Snedeker, a 32-year-old from Nashville, felt a kinship for his beaten opponent in ways others might not.

At the 2008 Masters, Snedeker was tied for the lead after two holes in the final round before his game abandoned him. He shot a 77 and he, too, cried and cried.

Snedeker had actually been in the interview tent Sunday and was talking about how happy he would be with his second-place finish.

While he spoke, he kept stealing glances at a television monitor behind him. He saw Stanley fly his third shot into the water and pop his fifth at the top of the tricky green. At that point, Snedeker politely ended his news conference.

“I’ve got to get back out there,” he said.

In each of Snedeker’s three tour victories, he has begun the final round at least five shots behind the leader. In his last victory, at Hilton Head, S.C., in 2011, he rallied from six shots behind world No. 1 Luke Donald and won in a playoff.

For Stanley, this is his second painful near-win. Last year, Stanley saw Steve Stricker sink a 25-foot putt on the final hole at the John Deere Classic and beat him by one shot.

This was worse.

He said that as he stood on the tee at the 570-yard 18th hole, being 19 under and with Snedeker about to finish at 16 under, he felt no nerves.

“Looking back,” he said, “I don’t really know what I was thinking. It’s really a pretty straightforward par five. I could probably play it 1,000 times and never make an eight.”

In his head, Stanley might just play it 1,000 times.

“I told him I was sorry,” Snedeker said. “There’s nothing else you can say.”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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