Posted 4/14/03 9:57 am ET

An empty spot at the 1st tee

Snead's absence will be felt beyond the opening round

In last year's Masters Tournament, Sam Snead teed off at No. 1 to officially start the competition for the last time. He died exactly six weeks later. Andrew Davis Tucker/AugustaChronicle

By Scott Michaux
The Augusta Chronicle

Augusta National Golf Club has dedicated monuments on the golf course for five of its most revered champions. Bridges are named after Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan. Drinking fountains have plaques honoring Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. For all these years, Sam Snead stood in as his own monument - a living legend whose presence always elevated the Masters Tournament and the golfers around him.

For the first time since 1937, the Masters will go on without Snead - the three-time champion and longtime honorary starter. Snead died in his Hot Springs, Va., home on May 23, 2002 - six weeks to the day after hitting his last tee shot as the ceremonial starter of the Masters and four days shy of his 90th birthday.

"It will be a dramatic end," four-time Masters champion Arnold Palmer said of an April in Augusta without Snead. "Last year Sam was pretty low, and we didn't know that what was going to happen would happen."

In 2002, Snead for the first time needed help teeing up his ball. His drive sailed right into the gallery, breaking a man's glasses when it hit him between the eyes. Two days before at the Champions Dinner, Snead declined to make his celebrated closing remarks. "In all the years that I've been there, almost 50 now, he's always had one of his Sam-isms or Snead-isms, whatever you want to call it, at the end of the dinner that would turn everybody on," Palmer said. "Last year, he didn't remark at all."

Snead's death leaves Nelson as the last surviving giant of golf's golden age.

"Sam was a great champion and friend of the Masters and participated in the tournament one way or another for 63 consecutive years," Masters Chairman William "Hootie" Johnson said after Snead's death. "He was one of the greatest golfers ever, and he will be deeply missed."

Snead will always be a tremendous part of Masters lore. He made 44 consecutive starts from 1937 to '83, retiring from competition at age 70. He played all 72 holes 31 times and posted nine top-five finishes, 15 top-10s and 26 top-25s. Overall, he played 146 rounds totaling 10,702 strokes.

Golf writer Dan Jenkins once dubbed Snead "the greatest golfer who never died," and his ageless tendencies were often displayed at Augusta. He tied for third in 1963, less than two months before his 51st birthday. He and close rival Ben Hogan tied for 10th at age 54. Snead won handily in 1949, becoming the first green jacket recipient when he defeated Johnny Bulla and Lloyd Mangrum by three strokes. He won again in 1952, but his most memorable Masters victory was his last, in 1954. Tied with Hogan, Snead won an 18-hole playoff by a stroke, 70-71.

"I can put the flags in every green," Snead said 45 years later of that playoff round. "I can tell you what Hogan had on each hole. How many putts he had on each hole. How many greens he missed and how many greens he hit. I beat him on the par-5s." Because the Masters clubhouse replica trophy wasn't presented until 1961, Snead had three copies made at his own expense - at a cost of $24,000 each, the notorious spendthrift said.

Snead was part of the Masters every year since 1937, including a run of 44 starts. Altogether, he played 146 rounds at the tournament. File/AugustaChronicle

Snead also won Par-3 Contests in 1960 and 1974, becoming the oldest winner at age 61. He also shot 3-under 24 in 1991, when he was 78, losing in a sudden-death playoff.

Palmer, who played with Snead to win two World Cups, says it was his personality as much as his golf skill that characterized Snead's greatness.

"He was of course a great player and a good guy to be around," Palmer said. "He was funny and always kept everything around him up. That was Snead."

It was at Augusta where Snead once played a couple of holes barefoot to support a joke made by Fred Corcoran. It was at Augusta where Snead once bragged to a young player that when he was the youngster's age he had cut the corner over the trees on No. 13. When the player's drive rattled in the pines, Snead confessed: "Son, when I was your age those trees were 35 feet tall."

The void Snead leaves in the golf world goes beyond Augusta National's gates. He was the winningest golfer of all time, getting credit for 81 PGA Tour victories and sanctioned wins in six decades from 1937 to 1982. Independent records put Snead's professional victory total at more than 180.

"It's not just Augusta's loss and not just to the Masters but to golf in general," Greg Norman said. "There are very few statesmen in the world you sit back and take notice and respect. His philosophy in life was the epitome of his golf swing. He never wavered." Above all, Snead will be remembered for his sweet swing, which two-time Masters champion Tom Watson called "the best swing there ever was."

Norman remembers the first time he met Snead, at the Greater Greensboro Open in 1977. Norman was making one of his first PGA Tour appearances on a sponsor's exemption, and he ran into Snead on the driving range.

"There was Sam, and I just stood there and watched him," Norman said. "I don't watch too many golfers swing the club - Steve Elkington and Sam Snead. I watched to generate rhythm. They've got that metronome feel."

Players know it will be unusual not seeing Snead at the Champions Dinner, on the first tee or holding court under the tree outside the clubhouse.

"It will be different," said Mark O'Meara, the 1998 Masters champion. "Any time we lose a past champion such as Sam Snead, it's a big loss. He brought a lot of history to that event. He was a card, and he had an immense amount of talent. You could tell he had something special."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.

 

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