Snedeker: "The important thing now is to win majors."

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Doug Ferguson tells us in his game story that Brandt Snedeker's five starts this year include a win, two second-place finishes and a third. Now Snedeker is off to Maui for a vacation.

More interesting was this tucked into the story later on:

Snedeker made five bogeys this week, and answered with a birdie four times.

The PGA Tour's "With This Win" list of impressive facts and figures surrounding Snedeker's win. This one especially:

Is 33/37 for subpar rounds in official TOUR events, dating to the start of the Wyndham Championship in August of last year. The week before the Wyndham Championship, missed the cut at the PGA Championship.

John Strege notes this:

Snedeker arrived in Pebble Beach sixth in the World Ranking and was expected to move to fourth with his victory. CBS' Jim Nantz noted that since the start of the 2011 season, Snedeker is tied with Woods in PGA Tour victories with four, second only to Rory McIlroy's five wins.

"To think what's happened the last four months has been pretty crazy," Snedeker said. "Finishing a tournament like this off with the lead gives me a ton of confidence going into the Masters, the U.S. Open, all the great venues we have. That's next on the list. I've won five times out here now. The important thing now is to win majors."

Golf.com pieces together Snedeker's retro bag which includes a THREE-year old driver. He's anti-capitalism! Mike Stachura explained the story behind that driver last fall.

Sean Martin includes five things from the week at Pebble, including a note on Patrick Cantlay's top 10 not getting him in the field at Riviera (but it doesn't matter...he was already in on an exemption).

'13 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Final Round Comment Thread

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Can Brandt-Snedeker--the hottest golfer on the PGA Tour--get the win?

Will James Hahn break out in another dance?

Will a hologram of Phil Harris visit the booth on 18? Actually, a cardboard cut-out of Mr. Harris would still have more to say than Clint Eastwood did during his exhilarating Saturday visit.

These are more questions answered starting at 10 a.m. to 11:30 on Golf Channel, some time after 12 p.m. PT on CBS following the conclusion of Indiana-Ohio State. Hopefully it doesn't last as long as Notre Dame-Louisville yesterday.

Expect Vijay To Be Exondeerated By Late April, Early May

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Alex Miceli lays out the timing and various avenues of the appeal process for Vijay Singh after he admitted to a doping policy violation in a Sports Illustrated story.

Shockingly, Singh has several ways out of this even though the ban on the substance in question was well publicized, regardless of whether it contains IGF-1 or not.

One of Singh's defenses might include an invocation of Commissioner Tim Finchem's words. I never quite imagined the Commish and his resistance to drug testing could be used against him this way...

5) Singh could use the commissioner's own words, that no drug benefits golfers. At a news conference on July 1, 2009, at the AT&T National, Finchem talked about potential drug use in golf.

"In some sports, cycling, clearly there are drugs that can help you win," Finchem said. "You can gain a real competitive advantage. I don't think that's true in golf, either, but it's not really relevant. What's relevant is, there's a rule, players play by the rules, they believe in that, and in a way it's helped us reaffirm that culture. So maybe that's good.”

Perhaps this (and other statements like it by Finchem until Tiger announced his desire to see testing) explains the tour's seemingly slow and nurturing response to Vijay's situation, words that would never be used to describe the Doug Barron situation. In a wide-ranging column on the topic, John Huggan quotes a European Tour source suggesting doping policy abuse on the European Tour, but more importantly he lays out this picture of the PGA Tour's handing of the Barron and Singh situations.

Back in June 2008, wee Timmy could hardly wait to punish journeyman Doug Barron, who tested positive for beta-blockers at the Memphis Classic. What wasn’t made clear at the time was that Barron had been prescribed said medication by his doctor as part of treatment for low testosterone and had duly informed the tour of that fact. Initially banned for a year, Barron was eventually cleared of wrongdoing, forcing the Tour into a humiliating climbdown.

Contrast that draconian and unfeeling attitude with the treatment of Singh. This past week the resident of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida – also the home to the PGA Tour – competed in the AT&A Pro-am, only days after openly admitting his prolonged use of a banned substance, one not prescribed by his doctor as treatment for any medical condition. Clearly, in Finchem’s world, there are rules for relative unknowns like Barron and rules for three-times major champions who are members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. At the very least, Singh should have taken a leave of absence from competitive golf until this matter was sorted out.

Annual AT&T National Pro-Am Viewer Discretion Alert

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Some people live for seeing A-listers like Kenny G and Andy Garcia or top (cranky) coaches like Jim Harbaugh, or Bill Belichick, QB's like Aaron Rodgers and Tony Romo, or maybe elite flamethrowers like Matt Cain and Justin Verlander.

For me, the AT&T National Pro-Am is always a chance to imbibe some liquid upon seeing shots, plugs, paybacks or other totally predictable moments. This year my support will be in the form of Dayquil to help get through the annual awkwardness that is watching famous people play golf while stepping way close to the hole in mud-filled Softspikes.

I plan to take a swig of my beloved cold and flu remedy for the traditions unlike any other: Jim Nantz referring to a CEO as "Mr." because anyone with a C-level pass is just that much more important, CBS director Lance Barrow showing his favorite Monterey restaurant or the CEO that he mysteriously can't seem to get enough, and most of all, any time Chris Berman comes on the screen.

Brendan Moehler previews the celebrities to look for and is there any question who will be the most watched team?

Speaking of hot girlfriends, Dustin Johnson is playing alongside his new squeeze's father, also known as "The Great One." Wayne's daughter, Paulina Gretzky, is a fashion model and Instagram star, and has been posting a lot of photos of her and Dustin's off-the-course escapades. Dustin won at Pebble in '09 and '10, but didn't have the distraction of playing with his girlfriend's father.

Golf Channel airtimes for the first two rounds are as follows:

Thursday 3-6 p.m. (Live) / 6:30-9:30 p.m. / 9:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. (Replay)
Friday 3-6 p.m. (Live) / 8:30-11:30 p.m. (Replay)

Video: Phil's (Bank?) Putt On Way To Winning Waste Management

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On a shot you'd normally expect him to hit the flop shot only Phil can pull off, he putts it, maybe gets a slight graze off the intermediate cut, and it goes in.

Q.  We know you're a magician on the greens, but on No. 7, was it really your intention to bank the putt off the collar of the fringe and into the hole?
   
PHIL MICKELSON:  Yes.  (Laughter.)

I had to putt 20 feet through the fringe.  That was    the challenge of that was to judge the speed where half the putt is through fringe and half is on the green.

I got lucky to have made it, obviously.  I was just trying to 2 putt it.  It was doing fairly quickly when it got to the hole, probably would have been six, eight feet by.  I was very fortunate to make a 2 there.  With Brandt in there close, that was a big momentum change for us.

With the win--his 41st and one that tied for the second lowest score in PGA Tour history Mickelson helped move the news cycle away from Vijay's deer antler spray and back to golf, says John Strege.

Mickelson also moves to No. 10 in the world and Brandt Snedeker, runner-up, moves to No. 6, wrties Jason Sobel.

Make sure to watch to see the aerial view from NBC: