In Greensboro, impossible not to remember Snead

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Sam Snead kept on making cuts on the PGA TOUR as he neared his 70th birthday.

By the time he retires, Tiger Woods should have most of the salient career statistics on the PGA TOUR. Heck, the way Woods has bounced back from a devastating knee injury to return to his dominating ways this year, it may happen well before the world's No. 1 ranked player turns 40.

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But despite what you hear incessantly during the golf telecasts, Woods is chasing more than Jack Nicklaus and his 18 professional majors. If as Woods often says, "It's all about the 'W's," then there's someone else visible on Woods' horizon: Slammin' Sammy Snead.

Nicklaus may have won more than twice as many majors as Snead (seven), but no golfer has won more PGA TOUR titles than Snead's 82. That's nine more than Nicklaus and 12 more than Woods (and subtracting).

And before you start the argument that "Yea, but who did Snead play against then? A bunch of snooty amateurs or grizzled pros who couldn't land a club job?" -- consider this: Snead was born within the same six-month span of Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan. Those guys were pretty good, you know.

And people think Ernie Els, David Duval and Phil Mickelson have the misfortune of being born in the same era as Woods.

With the PGA TOUR returning to Greensboro this week for the Wyndham Championship, it's time to give props to another of Snead's biggest accomplishments: He won this event's precursor, the Greater Greensboro Open -- a record eight times. Four of those wins came at the Starmount Forest Country Club, the rest at Sedgefield Country Club.

Of course, Woods may break that mark by as early as 2011 -- he has seven wins at the World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational (nee the World Series of Golf). The prospect of Woods surpassing Snead in this category seems as inevitable as him winning 13 more times to become the PGA TOUR's all-time tournament winner. That, too, could take place by 2011, at Woods' current pace.

Woods

There's nothing bad about your record being broken by arguably the greatest golfer to walk the fairways. More like a badge of honor.

When Woods zoomed past Billy Casper (51 PGA TOUR wins) for seventh place on the all-time wins list in 2006, it was Casper who wanted to throw a party. "People had forgotten what I had done, because I was a quiet golfer, unlike guys like Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino. "Having Tiger pass me is the best thing that could have happened to me, because it reminded a lot of people I was a pretty good player."

The same thing will happen to Snead as Woods draws closer. The most some neophyte golf fans know about Snead these days is occasionally Woods plays out of the Sam Snead Bracket in the World Golf Championships-World Match Play Championship.

Snead overcame humble beginnings from his West Virginia roots to become an immediate force star on the PGA TOUR, winning five times during his rookie season in 1937. Some fans -- and fellow players -- didn't take Snead seriously at first because of his folksy image. He would wear straw hats, play barefoot and say syrupy things such as "Keep close count of your nickels and dimes" and "never concede a putt."

But Snead had a swing that neither Butch Harmon, Hank Haney nor David Leadbetter would want to touch. Piano teachers could have used Snead's swing (1-2 pause 1-2) as the perfect timing tool.

Not only was his swing repeatable, it lasted longer than a toothache. His effortless swing explained why his career spanned almost a half-century on the PGA TOUR (1934-79). This longevity enabled him to set other notable records such as:

• Oldest player to win a PGA TOUR event (52 years, 10 months, 8 days) at, naturally, Greensboro in 1965.

• Oldest player to make the cut at a major (67 years, 2 months, 7 days) at the 1979 PGA Championship.

• First PGA TOUR player to shoot his age (67) in second round of the 1979 Quad Cities Open.

• Oldest player to make a cut on the PGA TOUR (67 years, 2 months, 21 days) at the 1979 Manufacturers Hanover Westchester Classic.

• Snead also held the record for most PGA TOUR wins in his 40s (17), until Vijay Singh shattered that mark two years ago.

Snead's impact was felt beyond the record books. He appeared in the Peanuts comic strip several times in the 1950s and 1960s, as one of Linus van Pelt's biggest idols. And Slammin' was once was asked to hit the Wrigley Field scoreboard with a golf ball tee up at home plate.

The reason Snead lasted so long was he was as flexible as a ballerina. Even in his 70s, he retained the coordination to stand on one foot and kick the other foot high enough to touch the top of a seven-foot high door frame without losing his balance.

Every time he would show up at the Masters' champions dinners, his fellow Green Jacket-holders would goad him into kicking the ceiling. Snead would always oblige, then sit down at dinner and tell jokes that would make a sailor blush.

For all of his superb accomplishments, many believe Snead never got his just due like the legends Hogan, Nicklaus, Palmer, Trevino and Watson. Snead also made an impact in golf's rule book: Because his putting had deteriorated, he went to hitting the ball croquet style in the 1960s. But in 1968, the USGA deemed that practice illegal. Snead putted side-straddle from then on.

If Woods continues his current pace of 5.7 wins a year for the last decade, he will likely catch Snead in early 2011. Too bad Snead, who died in 2002, won't experience the publicity boost like Casper received a few years ago.

But if Woods' mantra is correct -- and if it's indeed all about the wins, no professional golfer stands above Snead on the PGA TOUR. Certainly not in Greensboro.

Craig Dolch is a freelance columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.