ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603200049
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON SIRAK
The voice still resonates with the rich sounds of the Virginia hills, the words still pile upon each other in mounds of simple, country wisdom. Listening to Sam Snead talk is a trip back in time, before golfers were millionaires, before clubs were titanium.
Snead, a Hot Springs resident, was in on the ground floor of golf twice, and both times the game benefited enormously from his charm, humor and skills.
As Slammin' Sammy - the long-hitting, self-taught country boy always good for a clever quote - Snead helped the PGA Tour get going in the 1930s. More than 40 years later, Snead won the first Legends of Golf, helping get the Senior PGA Tour started.
Now, two months away from his 84th birthday, Snead has the clubs out again, getting ready for this week's Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, the only event he still plays.
``I don't play enough golf to keep my game up where I'd like to have it,'' Snead said Tuesday from the PGA West TPC Stadium Course in La Quinta, Calif. ``As you get older, things creep in, and you say to yourself, `Where did that come from?'
``It's nice to get here,'' he said about old age. ``But now I got to go downhill and hit rocks and sidewalks to get a 300-yard drive.''
Only from the heart of a true champion would come concern that, in his mid 80s, Snead doesn't have his game where he would like it.
He turned pro 62 years ago when the leading money winner, Paul Runyon, earned $6,767. He joined the tour in 1937, winning five tournaments, including the inaugural Bing Crosby tournament, considered the cornerstone of the original PGA Tour.
In 1978, Snead teamed with Gardner Dickinson to win the first Legends of Golf. By 1980, when Liberty Mutual Group had taken on sponsorship of the Legends, the Senior PGA Tour started with four events and a total purse of $475,000.
This year it has more than 40 events with a total purse of more than $34 million.
``It's been the greatest thing that has happened to the senior player,'' Snead said.
``When Mr. Raphael [producer Fred Raphael] and Jimmy Demaret started this back a few years ago, they thought the guys who can't quite make a cut anymore needed a place to play,'' Snead said.
It turned into a very lucrative place to play.
Last year, five players on the Seniors Tour won more than $1 million, and 15 players won more than the $620,126 Snead earned in a 42-year career on the PGA Tour during which he won a record 81 tournaments, 11 more than Jack Nicklaus.
Snead is not surprised that players who never tried to make it on the regular tour are now showing up on the Senior tour.
``When you raise money in various things, people come out from the woodwork,'' Snead said. ``Golf has raised up a couple of notches now.''
The words ``first,'' ``last'' or ``oldest'' seem to be synonymous with Snead.
He won the first Bing Crosby in 1937 and the first Legends in 1978. He was the first player to shoot his age in a tour event, shooting a 67 in the second round of the Quad Cities Open in 1979 at age 67 and followed it two days later with a 66 in the final round.
Snead was the last double-digit winner on tour, taking 11 tournaments in 1950 and with Ben Hogan (twice) and Byron Nelson are the only players to win 10 or more tournaments in a season.
``I wish I had been the putter that Hogan was,'' Snead remembered. ``Nicklaus has been our best putter ever.''
Snead also was the oldest winner on the PGA Tour, taking the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open at 52 years, 10 months and eight days.
Snead concedes there are some great athletes playing golf today, but he won't concede they are better players.
``The scores are a little better now,'' Snead said, ``but the greens and fairways are so much better now and the equipment has improved and I think the ball has been jacked up a little bit.''
Snead, one of the longest hitters of his day, has a fascination with John Daly.
``Daly is unique,'' Snead said. ``That's a rubberband,'' he said of the enormous backswing. ``If he just learned a little more golf sense on the golf course, he'd be something to deal with.''
Snead spends a lot of his time hunting and fishing now, which is why he said he started playing golf for pay anyway.
``I always told people the reason I play golf is so that I can fish and hunt,'' Snead said.
And he probably charms the fish right into his boat with humorous tales of the old days, when he started two pro golf tours.
Ron Sirak covers golf for The Associated Press.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1992/File. Sam Snead (right), who is a big fan of Johnby CNBDaly (left), won a record 81 PGA tournaments, 11 more than Jack
Nicklaus.