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Slammin' Sam won with style
After harnessing his power, Sam Snead enjoyed a record-setting career
Posted: Tuesday April 03, 2001 7:03 PM
Updated: Tuesday March 26, 2002 6:21 PM
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Sam Snead, who is credited with 135 world wide victories by some record keepers, hits a drive at the 1965 Masters. File/The Augusta Chronicle |
By Scott Michaux
The Augusta Chronicle
Snead Tour victories
Senior Tour victories
Stop me if you've heard this one before.
There was this young golfer with a passion for winning and a reputation as the longest hitter in the game. He already owned one major championship title and carried with him an expectation for challenging every time he teed the ball up.
But this champion decided to renovate his already exceptional swing. He suffered the growing pains that went with the change and came out the other side a better player.
Tiger Woods, right?
Try Sam Snead. Nearly 50 years before Tiger's legendary swing change into history, Snead had lived through a nearly identical experience with little fanfare.
``I could hit 300 yards when I wanted to,'' Snead said. ``I swung about 85 percent, so that way I could keep it in the fairway. The more times you keep it in the fairway, the more times you'll have putts for birdie. That was in 1949.''
By Snead's standards, 1948 was a dismal season. Only one victory, at the Texas Open, coming on the heels of a winless 1947.
Snead hardly seemed the champion who had already won 41 PGA Tour events through his first 11 years as a pro. The long hitter with the sweetest swing in golf wasn't bringing home the money like he used to.
So Slammin' Sam Snead reined in his power.
``I tried to tell my nephew (J.C. Snead), `What good's a 300-yard drive in the tulips, the trees or the traps?''' Snead said of his new control. ``The more greens you hit, the more chances you can have at birdie. That's the name of the game.''
Snead's results were identical to Woods'. Snead became the most dominant golfer in the world, winning five major championship over the next five years, including all three of his Masters titles.
In 1949, Snead won six times, including his first Masters title and his second PGA championship. He captured his second of four Vardon Trophies for the low scoring average and was named the PGA Player of the Year.
In 1950, Snead enjoyed his best season, winning 11 times and setting the record for scoring average (69.23 over 96 rounds) that was not bested until Woods posted a 68.17 average in 76 rounds last year.
Yet for sentimental reasons, Ben Hogan was named Player of the Year despite winning only one event (the U.S. Open) in his comeback season from a near-fatal car crash.
Snead got a measure of revenge on Hogan in the 1954 Masters, a playoff finale that tournament founder Bobby Jones once called the greatest championship he'd ever seen.
Snead edged Hogan by a stroke (70-71) in the Monday showdown, and he remembers the duel as if it were yesterday.
``I can put the flags in every green,'' he said. ``I can tell you what (Hogan) had on each hole; how many putts he had on each hole. How many greens he hit and how many greens I hit. I beat him on the par 5s - I hit three out of four (in two).''
Before retiring to become an annual honorary starter in 1984, Snead competed in 44 Masters - a record until Doug Ford surpassed him with 48 appearances. Snead sneers at Ford's mark and will gladly tell you that Ford wouldn't be shooting 94s at Augusta now if Snead hadn't faltered with a final-round 72 to yield the 1957 Masters to Ford.
``Doug Ford hasn't made the cut in years,'' Snead says. ``Well that shouldn't count. That should not count.''
Snead, it should be noted, holds the Masters record for most consecutive finishes with 24. He finished runnerup twice, third three other times and in the top 10 on 15 occasions. His career scoring average in the Masters is 73.30.
The only blemish on Snead's otherwise flawless career is the absence of a U.S. Open title. He finished second four times, including his rookie season in 1937.
Snead's math is more extensive.
``If I shoot 69 in the last round, I would have won nine U.S. Opens,'' he said. ``Back then, that wasn't so tough. But I've never had so many things happen.''
Like the time in 1939 when he carelessly blew a two-shot lead to Byron Nelson with a triple bogey on the 72nd hole. Snead thought he needed a birdie.
Or the time he missed a 30-inch putt on the last hole in 1947 to lose by a shot to Lew Worsham in an 18-hole playoff.
But Snead doesn't fret too much about lost majors. A famous lover of winning and money, Snead didn't distinguish between majors and minors.
``Jack Nicklaus was always majors, majors, majors,'' Snead said. ``What the hell's the difference? It's just a different name, that's all. Same people. Same game. Nothing's changed. I don't give a damn what tournament it is, if you're going to play it you want to win regardless of how small it is.''
That explains why Snead was so prolific for so long, winning his last PGA Tour event in 1965 - 28 years after his first - at the record old age of 52 years, 10 months and eight days.
His official win count is 81, a figure that sticks in Snead's craw. Independent record keepers credit him with 135 worldwide victories. He also won 14 senior tour events, including 11 senior majors. He became the first and youngest player to shoot his age (67) in a regular PGA Tour event, firing a 67 and 66 in the 1979 Quad Cities Open.
Snead won a PGA Club Professionals title when he was 71 and shot a course-record 60 on his hometown Lower Cascades course when he was 73.
Snead's legend is part of the fabric of the Masters. Each year he presides over the annual Champions Dinner with his famous story-telling.
Maybe it was the time he played nine holes during a practice round barefooted at the urging of Fred Corcoran to build on Snead's Virginia hillbilly reputation.
Maybe it was the time he goaded a young golfer into attempting to cut the corner on the 13th hole.
``I thought you said you could hit it over those trees?'' the golfer asked Snead.
``Son, when I was your age those trees were 35 feet tall,'' Snead replied.
Snead was the first player to receive the symbolic green jacket after his 1949 Masters victory. Ironically, Snead never received the replica silver clubhouse trophy for any of his three triumphs. He had to pay out of his own pocket to have three replicas made (at a cost of $24,000 each) so he could display them with his other hardware.
Snead's only beef with Augusta might be the fact that its founder lobbied to get Snead's croquet-style putting stroke outlawed by the USGA.
``Bob Jones got that changed; I'm sure of it,'' Snead said. ``I would have won Augusta again if they let me putt that way.''
| Snead Tour victories (81) by decade |
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| Year |
Event(s) |
| 1930s |
| '36 |
West Virginia PGA |
| '37 |
Oakland Open, Bing Crosby Pro-Am, St. Paul Open, Nassau Open, Miami Open |
| '38 |
Bing Crosby Pro-Am, Greensboro Open, Inverness Four-Ball, Goodall Round Robin, Chicago Open, Canadian Open, Westchester 108 Hole Open, White Sulphur Springs Open |
| '39 |
St. Petersburg Open, Miami Biltmore Four-Ball, Miami Open |
| 1940s |
| '40 |
Inverness Four-Ball, Canadian Open, Anthracite Open |
| '41 |
Bing Crosby Pro-Am, St. Petersburg Open, North & South Open, Canadian Open, Rochester Times Union Open, Henry Hurst Invitational |
| '42 |
St. Petersburg Open, PGA Championship |
| '44 |
Portland Open, Richmond Open |
| '45 |
Los Angeles Open, Gulfport Open, Pensacola Open, Jacksonville Open, Dallas Open, Tulsa Open |
| '46 |
Jacksonville Open, Greensboro Open, Virginia Open, World Championship, Miami Open |
| '48 |
Texas Open |
| '49 |
Greensboro Open, Masters, PGA Championship, Washington Star Open, Dapper Dan Open, Western Open |
| 1950s |
| '50 |
Bing Crosby Pro-Am, Los Angeles Open, Texas Open, Miami Beach Open, Greensboro Open, Western Open, Colonial National Invitational, Inverness Four-Ball, Reading Open, North & South Open, Miami Open. |
| '51 |
PGA Championship, Miami Open |
| '52 |
Masters, Palm Beach Round Robin, Inverness Four-Ball, All American, Eastern Open |
| '53 |
Baton Rouge Open |
| '54 |
Masters, Palm Beach Round Robin |
| '55 |
Greensboro Open, Palm Beach Round Robin, Insurance City Open, Miami Open |
| '56 |
Greensboro Open |
| '57 |
Palm Beach Round Robin, Dallas Open |
| '58 |
Dallas Open |
| 1960s |
| '60 |
De Soto Open, Greensboro Open |
| '61 |
Tournament of Champions |
| '65 |
Greensboro Open |
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| Senior victories (14) |
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| Event |
Year(s) Won |
| PGA Seniors |
1964, '65, '67, '70, '72, '73 |
| World Seniors |
1964, '65, '70, '72, '73 |
| Legends of Golf (with Gardner Dickinson) |
1978 |
| Golf Digest Commemorative Pro-Am |
1980 |
| Legends of Golf (with Don January) |
1982 |
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