"The greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow." -- Sam Snead
Samuel Jackson Snead (May 27, 1912 – May 23, 2002) was an American professional golfer who was one of the top players in the world for most of four decades. He and two of the other greatest golfers of all time, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, were born within six months of each other in 1912. Snead won a record 82 PGA Tour events.
Snead won seven majors: three Masters, three PGA Championships and one British Open. But his reputation has always been slightly tarnished by his failure to win a U.S. Open. Snead used to share the record for most second-place finishes in that championship (four) with four others; Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Phil Mickelson. After the 2009 U.S. Open, Mickelson became the all-time leader with five second place finishes.
Snead's nickname was "Slammin' Sammy." He was admired by many for having the so-called "perfect swing," and generated many imitators. Snead was famed for his folksy image, wearing a straw hat, playing tournaments barefoot, and making such statements as "Keep close count of your nickels and dimes, stay away from whiskey, and never concede a putt." He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974, and received the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.
"Correct one fault at a time. Concentrate on the one fault you want to overcome.""Forget your opponents; always play against par.""Golf is played with the arms.""If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death.""Never let up. The more you can win by, the more doubts you put in the other players' minds the next time out.""Nobody asked how you looked, just what you shot.""Of all the hazards, fear is the worst.""Practice puts brains in your muscles.""The greens are harder than a whore's heart.""The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat.""The only reason I ever played golf in the first place was so I could afford to hunt and fish.""These greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow.""Those who go along get along.""To be consistently effective, you must put a certain distance between yourself and what happens to you on the golf course. This is not indifference, it's detachment.""Until you play it, St. Andrews looks like the sort of real estate you couldn't give away."
Snead was born in Ashwood, Virginia near Hot Springs, Virginia. At the age of seven, he began caddying at The Homestead in Hot Springs; he worked as an assistant pro at The Homestead at 19, and turned professional in 1934. In 1944 he became head pro at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Snead maintained ties to Hot Springs and The Homestead for all of his life.
Death
Sam Snead died in Hot Springs in 2002 following complications from a stroke four days short of his 90th birthday. He was survived by two sons, Sam Jr., of Hot Springs, Virginia and Terry, of Mountain Grove, Virginia; a brother, Pete, of Pittsburgh; and two grandchildren. His wife, Audrey, died in 1990. His nephew J. C. Snead was also a PGA Tour golfer.
In 1937, Snead's first year on the Tour, he won five events, including the Oakland Open at Claremont Country Club in California.
In 1938, he first won the Greater Greensboro Open. He won that event a total of eight times, the Tour record, concluding in 1965 at the age of , making him the oldest player to win a PGA Tour event.
1939 was the first of several times he failed at crucial moments of the U.S. Open, the only major event he never won. Needing par to win, he posted an 8 on the 72nd hole. At the U.S. Open in 1949, Snead missed a 2 1/2-foot putt on the final playoff hole to lose to Lew Worsham.
In 1950, he won 11 events. No one has since won more in one year. He won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average four times: 1938, 1949, 1950, and 1955. He played on seven Ryder Cup teams: 1937, 1947, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1955, and 1959, and captained the team in 1951, 1959, and 1969.
In 1971, he won the PGA Club Professional Championship.
In 1974, at age 62, he shot a one-under-par 279 to come in third, three strokes behind winner Lee Trevino at the PGA Championship at Tanglewood in Clemmons, North Carolina.
In 1978, he won the first Legends of Golf event, which was the impetus for the creation two years later of the Senior PGA Tour, now known as the Champions Tour.
In 1979 he was the youngest PGA Tour golfer to shoot his age (67) in the second round of the 1979 Quad Cities Open. He shot under his age (66) in the final round.
In 1983, at age 71, he shot a round of 60 (12-under-par) at The Homestead in Hot Springs, Virginia.
In 1997, at age 85, he shot a round of 78 at the Old White course of The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
In 1998, he received the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award, the fourth person to be so honored.
From 1984 to 2002, he hit the honorary starting tee shot at The Masters. Until 1999, he was joined by Gene Sarazen, and until 2001, by Byron Nelson.
Snead wrote several golf instructional books, and frequently wrote instructional columns in golf magazines.
In 2000, he was ranked the third greatest golfer of all time, in Golf Digest magazine's rankings. Jack Nicklaus was first, and Ben Hogan was second.
Snead was inducted into the West Virginia Golf Hall of Fame in 2009 with William C. Campbell.
During his peak years, Snead was an exceptionally long driver, particularly into the wind, with very good accuracy as well. He was a superb player with the long irons. Snead was also known for a very creative short game, pioneering use of the sand wedge for short shots from grass. As he aged, his putting deteriorated. Snead pioneered croquet-style putting in the 1960s, where he straddled the ball with one leg on each side. The United States Golf Association banned this technique in 1968 by amending the old Rule 35-1, since until that time, golfers had always faced the ball when striking. Snead then went to side-saddle putting, where he crouched and angled his feet towards the hole, and held the club with a split grip. He used that style for the rest of his career.
Most PGA Tour victories at an event: 8 at the Greater Greensboro Open (1938, 1946, 1949, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1960, 1965)
Oldest player to win a PGA Tour event: age 52 years, 10 months, 8 days at the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open
Oldest player to make the cut at a major: age 67 years, 2 months, 7 days at the 1979 PGA Championship
First PGA Tour player to shoot his age: 67 in the second round of the 1979 Quad Cities Open
Oldest player to make a cut on the PGA Tour: age 67 years, 2 months, 21 days at the 1979 Manufacturers Hanover Westchester Classic.
Only player to post a top ten finish in at least one major championship in five different decades.
Snead also held the record for most PGA Tour wins after reaching age 40, with 17, until it was broken at the 2007 Mercedes-Benz Championship by Vijay Singh.
1937 (5) Oakland Open, Bing Crosby Pro-Am, St. Paul Open, Nassau Open, Miami Open (Dec.)
1938 (8) Bing Crosby Pro-Am, Greater Greensboro Open, Chicago Open, Canadian Open, Westchester 108 Hole Open, White Sulphur Springs Open, Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Vic Ghezzi), Palm Beach Round Robin
1939 (3) St. Petersburg Open, Miami Open, Miami Biltmore International Four-Ball (with Ralph Guldahl)
1940 (3) Canadian Open, Anthracite Open, Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Ralph Guldahl)
1941 (6) Bing Crosby Pro-Am, St. Petersburg Open, North and South Open, Canadian Open, Rochester Times Union Open, Henry Hurst Invitational
1942 (2) St. Petersburg Open, PGA Championship
1944 (2) Portland Open, Richmond Open
1945 (6) Los Angeles Open, Gulfport Open, Pensacola Open, Jacksonville Open, Dallas Open, Tulsa Open
1946 (6) Jacksonville Open, Greater Greensboro Open, The Open Championship (not counted as a PGA Tour win at the time, but designated as such in 2002), World Championship of Golf, Miami Open, Virginia Open
1948 (1) Texas Open
1949 (6) Greater Greensboro Open, Masters Tournament, Washington Star Open, Dapper Dan Open, Western Open, PGA Championship
1950 (11) Los Angeles Open, Bing Crosby Pro-Am (tie with Jack Burke, Jr., Smiley Quick, Dave Douglas), Texas Open, Miami Beach Open, Greater Greensboro Open, Western Open, Colonial National Invitation, Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Jim Ferrier), Reading Open, North and South Open, Miami Open
1951 (2) PGA Championship, Miami Open
1952 (5) Masters Tournament, Palm Beach Round Robin, Inverness Invitational Four-Ball (with Jim Ferrier), All American Open, Eastern Open
1953 (1) Baton Rouge Open
1954 (2) Masters Tournament, Palm Beach Round Robin
1955 (4) Greater Greensboro Open, Palm Beach Round Robin, Insurance City Open, Miami Open
1956 (1) Greater Greensboro Open
1957 (2) Dallas Open Invitational, Palm Beach Round Robin
1958 (1) Dallas Open Invitational
1960 (2) De Soto Open Invitational, Greater Greensboro Open
1961 (1) Tournament of Champions
1965 (1) Greater Greensboro Open
Major championships are shown in bold.
Other wins
1936 West Virginia Open
1937 West Virginia Open
1938 West Virginia Open
1940 Ontario Open (Canada)
1941 Center Open (Argentina)
1948 West Virginia Open
1949 North and South Open, West Virginia Open
1952 West Virginia Open, Brazil Open, Greenbrier Pro-Am
Note: The PGA Championship was match play until 1958.1 Defeated Ben Hogan in 18-hole playoff - Snead (70), Hogan (71)
Results timeline
NT = No tournamentDNP = Did not playWD = WithdrewCUT = missed the half-way cut"T" indicates a tie for a placeR64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in PGA Championship match playGreen background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.
Snead was referenced in several jokes in the Peanuts comic strip in the 1950s and 1960s. Linus van Pelt has claimed to "have always kind of admired him", and Schroeder bragged that he was "going to be the Sam Snead of music!"
Snead hit the Wrigley Field scoreboard with a golf ball teed off from home plate.
Snead once appeared in an episode of The Phil Silvers Show (Sergeant Bilko).
In 1987, Snead appeared opposite Tim Conway in Dorf's Golf Bible. Despite Snead's efforts, Dorf cannot follow through on even the simplest of Snead's instructions, prompting Snead's repeated pleas of "why don't you quit?"
According to an edition of the Book of Sports Lists, Snead made a commercial for Bromo-Seltzer in which he said, "On the day of atonement, I cannot afford to be sick." It was a while before the Jewish audience realized Sammy was not referring to Yom Kippur, but "could not pronounce 'tournament' like other white folk."
Snead was so flexible and coordinated that for most of his adult life, he was able to stand on one foot and kick the other foot high enough to touch the top of a door frame without losing his balance.
