Golfing legend Sam Snead dies at 89

Posted 7:55AM on Friday 24th May 2002 ( 23 years ago )

No one won more than Sam Snead. Not many looked better doing it. Despite his record 81 victories on the PGA Tour, seven major championships, 10 appearances in the Ryder Cup as a player or captain, and an ageless game that kept him competitive into his 60s, ``Slammin' Sam'' was known best for his swing. ``It was a gift, something you can't teach,'' two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange said. ``His hands looked like they were born to have a golf club in them.'' Snead died Thursday at 89 after a series of strokes that began just after the Masters, although daughter-in-law Anne Snead said he had been ill before that. He died at his Hot Springs, Va., home, holding hands with his son Sam Jr. and his daughter-in-law. ``He didn't seem scared,'' Anne Snead said. ``I think he was very much at peace.'' Snead was raised during the Depression in the backwoods of western Virginia. He learned how to play in bare feet and with clubs made from tree limbs, and he was blessed with as much raw talent as anyone who played golf. ``He brought so much to the game with his great swing and the most fluid motion ever to grace a golf course,'' Jack Nicklaus said. Arnold Palmer, who was on two winning World Cup teams with Snead, called him one of the greatest athletes ever. Snead was so limber he could kick the top of a door frame even when he was in his early 80s. ``He was a man who was very important to the popularity of the game,'' Palmer said. ``I'm so sorry these things have to happen.'' Phil Mickelson spoke for anyone who ever saw Snead play: ``I don't think there's ever been a golf swing as aesthetically pleasing as Sam Snead's.'' The records it produced were staggering. His first victory came in the 1936 West Virginia Closed Pro. His last was the 1982 Legends of Golf, when he teamed with Don January. Snead was the oldest winner on the PGA Tour, capturing the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open at 52, and remained a threat well into his 60s. He tied for third in the 1974 PGA Championship at 62, finishing three strokes behind Lee Trevino. Five years later, Snead became the youngest player to shoot his age - 67 - in the Quad Cities Open. If that wasn't enough, he shot a 66 two days later. ``I was never amazed at anything he ever did,'' Byron Nelson said. Snead was famous for his straw hat, cocky grin and homespun humor. A three-time Masters champion, Snead had been an honorary starter since 1983. He would jaunt to the first tee, show off that flowing, flawless swing and then tell stories outside the clubhouse. This year was different. He didn't close the annual Champions Dinner with any jokes. And for the first time, he needed someone else to tee up the ball at the Masters. The ceremonial shot flew into the gallery and struck a fan in the face, breaking the man's glasses. Although he didn't feel well, Snead never considered passing on the tradition of hitting the ceremonial first drive. ``Anyone else wouldn't have done it, but Sam was tough as nails and very determined,'' Anne Snead said. ``He was never a quitter.'' For all his victories - independent record keepers place his total at 160 - Snead never won the U.S. Open, which haunted him the rest of his career. He was a runner-up four times, but his most infamous U.S. Open occurred in 1939 at Philadelphia Country Club. There were no scoreboards on the course, and Snead thought he needed a birdie on the final hole to win the U.S. Open, when all he needed was a par. Playing aggressively, he hit his drive into the left rough and never recovered, making a triple bogey. ``That night, I was ready to go out with a gun and pay somebody to shoot me,'' Snead said. ``It weighed on my mind so much that I dropped 10 pounds, lost more hair and began to choke even in practice rounds.'' The Masters, however, was his domain. Snead won the Masters for the first time in 1949, the year club members began awarding a green jacket. Snead won again three years later, and earned his final Masters victory in 1954 after beating Hogan by one stroke in an 18-hole playoff. He had nine finishes in the top five and 15 finishes in the top 10. ``We are profoundly saddened by the death of Sam Snead,'' Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson said, noting Snead's participation in 63 consecutive Masters. He also was a three-time winner of the PGA Championship during the match play era. Snead claimed his only British Open at St. Andrews in 1946 during a time when few American players could afford to travel across the Atlantic. Even a victory would not guarantee they could cover expenses. He returned to St. Andrews with other Open champions for a four-hole exhibition in 2000, and recalled his first trip to the home of golf. When the train arrived alongside the Old Course, ``It did not look to me like it had ever had a machine on it.'' Snead turned to the man next to him and said, ``What abandoned course is this?'' ``Once I got on the golf course, I respected it more each time I played it,'' he said. Born May 27, 1912, in Hot Springs, Snead needed no formal teachers to develop the swing that lasted a lifetime. ``Watching Sam Snead practice hitting golf balls is like watching a fish practice swimming,'' said John Schlee, a U.S. Open runner-up in 1973. The late Gene Sarazen once said of a young Snead, ``I've just watched a kid who doesn't know anything about playing golf, and I don't want to be around when he learns how.'' Snead joined the PGA Tour in 1937, driving out to California with only $300. He won at least one tournament every year on tour except one for the next 23 years. His biggest season was in 1950, when he won 11 times. No one has won that much since, although Tiger Woods came close in 2000 with nine victories. Snead first met Woods during an exhibition in California when Woods was 6.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/5/194314