Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 29, 1990 TAG: 9004290046
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After all, the Homestead is famous for golf, and Snead is no worse than the second-most famous golfer to come out of Hot Springs.
Snead still owns a home in Bath County, just up the road from the Lower Cascades Golf Course, but, until recently, he had no official relationship with the Homestead.
All that changed when Chuck Ingalsbee took over as general manager in 1989.
"The relationship seemed like such a natural," Ingalsbee said. "He spends a lot of time here. It was an opportunity we had overlooked for far too long."
Snead, 49, is the winner of eight tournaments and more than $2.2 million since joining the PGA Tour in 1968. He ranked 36th on the PGA's all-time money list before this season.
Just as impressive, Snead has been exempt for the past 19 years and should be a force on the PGA Senior Tour after he turns 50 on Oct. 14.
Snead wants to remain on the PGA Tour as long as he remains competitive, but wherever he chooses to play, he will have the Homestead emblem on his golf bag and will wear Homestead sweaters and slacks.
"I don't think it hurt me all these years not to play out of anywhere," said Snead, the nephew of golf legend and fellow Hot Springs resident Sam Snead, "but you couldn't have bought the TV time that the Homestead could have gotten."
Although he has a home in Ponte Vedra, Fla., Snead moves north in June and keeps Hot Springs as a home base until August, when 11-year-old son Jason returns to school. Snead also returns to Bath County for hunting season in November.
"I always felt uncomfortable playing there despite the fact I lived there," Snead said. "I didn't always feel like I was welcome."
Now, Snead will be rolling out the welcome mat. He keeps a handful of brochures in his briefcase and spreads the word about the Homestead and its three golf courses, "which is what I always did anyway," he said.
When available, Snead will conduct corporate outings and clinics.
"There are a lot of possibilities to explore," Ingalsbee said, "but, for right now, he's our touring pro and we haven't gone beyond that. We want him to play."
Snead sometimes comes across in the media as gruff or aloof, but he has been pleasant and cooperative with writers who have taken the time to get to know him. He has a reputation for helping fellow touring pros with their swings.
"I told myself that I wasn't going to mess with other guys anymore, but I've still been doing it," he said. "I think I know as much about the golf swing as anybody. That's one of my problems. I've never been the type to hit a ball, find it, then hit it again. I always want to hit the proper shot."
Nobody will ever know how much Snead's career would have changed if he had won a major championship. He still agonizes over the 1973 Masters, which he led before hitting into the water at No. 12 on the final day.
Snead had noticed on his second shot at No. 11 that his ball seemed to be losing compression and decided to take out a new ball at No. 12, but he lost his train of thought and never made the switch.
"If my name had been Jones or Brown, maybe I would have been better off," said Snead, whose uncle won 81 tour events. "I know I was not a great player, not a Nicklaus. When I was at my best, so were [Jack] Nicklaus, [Lee] Trevino and [Tom] Watson. But I played as well as some of these guys who are your everyday heroes.
"Nowadays, they write stories when a guy sets a record for most money won [in a season] without winning a tournament. I finished second four times in 1974 and nobody said a word. I set the record two years in a row [1973-74] for money won without winning a tournament."
Snead came back to win two tournaments in both 1975 and '76. And he still was winning at age 46, when he captured the Westchester Classic in 1986.
"When I get to the point where I feel I'm in the way, I'll quit [the PGA Tour]," Snead said. "I still haven't thought that much about the Senior Tour, but I'd rather be out here as long as I can make money and play decent.
"I don't mean to offend anybody, but that's kind of like playing in the minors and I've been there once."
Snead played professional baseball in the Washington Senators chain before turning to golf in the mid-1960s. He learned the game on the Homestead courses and has low rounds of 63 at the Cascades and 60 on the Lower Cascades, where he shares the record with his uncle, Sam.
He has played the shorter Homestead course infrequently, but broke the record there in a round with Ingalsbee one day after agreeing to represent the resort.
"I thought I shot 60, but we added it up and it was 61," Snead said. "It was really early in the spring and I'm not sure they had changed the cups since the fall. I remember because I went out one day with Don Ryder [in November] and I was 8 under, after 10 holes . . . [but] we quit."
Apparently, that 61 might not be safe for long.
by CNB