Sam Snead still jointly holds the record for the most career PGA Tour wins. The golf legend won 82 times in PGA events, only joined on that mark in 2019 by Tiger Woods. Among those 82 PGA Tour wins were seven major tournaments Snead skilfully conquered. He found his most major success in the Masters and PGA Championship tournaments. Snead won each three times between 1942 and 1954. The golfer also added an Open Championship title in 1946 to his trophy cabinet.
Despite his successes at the three major events, Snead could never win the U.S. Open. The tournament was the impossible he could never overcome as he finished second on four separate occasions.
Snead’s playing career started in 1931 when he worked at a golf course as an assistant professional. Snead was just 19. Three years later, Snead became a full-fledge professional golfer. By 1936, Snead had won the first of his record 82 PGA Tour wins. He claimed first prize in the West Virginia Closed Pro event. Between 1936 and 1942, Snead won a PGA tournament in each year.
Many of Snead’s wins came thanks to his long, accurate drives. The legendary golfer played during a long-lost era of the sport. It was a time when players weren’t able to play with modern-day golf clubs and all their advances. He regularly experimented with his game and was never satisfied. He changed his putting style several times over the decades.
One of Snead’s more forgotten tournament wins came in 1962. He won the Royal Poinciana Invitational in Palm Beach, Florida. The tournament was on the LPGA circuit at the time and Snead became the only man to win an event in the women’s golf league.
Snead would later pen several successful books and in 2000, he was ranked the third greatest golfer of all-time by Golf Digest.
In 2002, just shy of his 90th birthday, Snead passed away due to complications from a stroke. He is remembered as one of the game’s greats, yet his name seems lost when golf experts talk about others like Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer.
Sam Snead’s Major Wins
| Years | Masters | US PGA | U.S. Open | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | ✕ | ✅ | ✕ | ✕ |
| 1946 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✅ |
| 1949 | ✅ | ✅ | ✕ | ✕ |
| 1951 | ✕ | ✅ | ✕ | ✕ |
| 1952 | ✅ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| 1954 | ✅ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
Masters Wins: 3
San Snead’s first foray into the world of the Masters Tournament came in 1937 when he finished 18th. Things initially got worse a year later when he was tied-31st, but in 1939 he ended up second in what was the first of five top-ten finishes in years when the competition took place. His three Masters wins came in the space of six years after the end of the Second World War, followed closely by coming third, tied-fourth and second. That was, perhaps, a demonstration of the fact that he wasn’t just wearing a green jacket by fluke. He kept entering the Masters for years to come, taking part in his final round at Augusta National in 1983.
1949 – Green Jacket Awarded for the First Time
The 13th renewal of the Masters Tournament took place in 1949 and will always be remembered for one thing above all others: it was the first year that the famous green jacket was awarded to the winner. It wasn’t his first Major win, but the fact that he also won the PGA Championship a few months later made it a big year for him. He was tied-eighth after the first round thanks to shooting 73, then dropped out of the top ten altogether after a second round 75. On the third day he got into his stride, however, and moved up to tied-second with 67. When he repeated the same score on the Sunday, he took the title thanks to a score of 282 over the week, which was -6.
1952 – Snead Battles High Winds for 4-Shot Victory
It was another year of firsts in 1952, this time being the first time that the defending champion hosted a dinner, officially called the Masters Club Dinner but becoming known in future years simply as the Champions Dinner. That was Ben Hogan, who sat tied for the lead with Snead after three rounds. Snead was there courtesy of a first round of 70, then a second round 67, sitting three shots in front of Hogan. A 77 from Snead on day three gave Hogan a sniff, but he shot a 79 on the Sunday compared to Snead’s 72 that allowed the Virginia born player to end up on a -2 score of 286 for the week, winning it by four shots from Jack Burke Jr.
1954 – Ben Hogan Edged Out After 18-Hole Playoff
Two years after Snead claimed the second of his three Masters, he returned to Augusta in order to pick up the final Major of his career. Once again he was battling with Ben Hogan as the defending champion, this time needing a play-off to take the green jacket. Day one saw him post a level-par 72, then the Friday put him one off the lead thanks to a 73. Hogan led at two under when Snead posted a 70 on the Saturday, then Snead’s 72 on Sunday alongside Hogan’s 75 forced the play-off, knocking amateur Billy Joe Patton off the top spot. In the 18-hole play-off on the Monday, Snead finished with a -2 score of 70 compared to Hogan’s 71.
PGA Championship Wins: 3
In the days that Sam Snead was winning the PGA Championship, it wasn’t a stroke play competition as it is nowadays. Instead it was match play, meaning that Snead had to defeat other players in order to take his place in the winner’s enclosure. His first experience of it resulted in him making it to the round of 16, then he finished as the runner-up for two years running. He made it to the quarter-finals in 1941 and won the final tournament prior to the cessation of it due to the outbreak of the Second World War. He continued taking part in it for decades to come, including finishing tied-third in 1974 when he was in his 60s.
1942 – First Major Win Before Joining the Navy
The 1942 PGA Championship was played at Seaview Country Club in New Jersey, with the initial field of 102 players being whittled down to 32 for the match play part of proceedings. That pitted Snead against Ed Dudley in the quarter-finals, who he defeated 1up across 36 holes in order to set up a match against Jimmy Demaret. That ended 3&2 to Snead after another 36 holes, putting him in the final against a Jim Turnesa who had already knocked out Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson in the earlier rounds. Snead won 2&1 across the two rounds of golf played on the final day in order to secure his first of three PGA Championships.
1949 – Johnny Palmer Beaten 3&2 in Final
Seven years later and it was Belmont Golf Course, formerly known as Hermitage Country Club, that was the host course for the PGA Championship. It was still match play, with Snead heading there as the winner of the Masters just a few months before. The match play nature of the event required 12 rounds to be played in seven days, with Sam Snead beating Jimmy Demaret 4&3 in the quarter-finals whilst Jonny Palmer won against Henry Williams Jr. In the semi-finals Snead won 3&2 against Jim Ferrier and Johnny Palmer defeated Lloyd Mangrum 6&5. When they faced each other in the final, Sam Snead won 3&2 to secure his second PGA Championship title.
1951 – 7&6 Win Over Walter Burkemo
In 1951, the PGA Championship was played at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, which was the first time that the competition had turned to a venue that had hosted it before. When Snead won it two years earlier, he had become the oldest winner at the age of 37, so this win extending his own record. He took on Jack Burke Jr. in the quarter-final and won 2&1, then defeated Charlie Bassier 9&8 at the semi-final stage. With Walter Burkemo having beaten Reggie Myles 1up in the quarter-final and Ellsworth Vines on a 37th hole in the semi, it set up an intriguing quarter-final that Snead secured 7&6 over 36 holes of golf.
US Open Wins: None
The US Open is the only major that Sam Snead never managed to win, but it was a case of ‘always the bridesmaid, never the bride’. He finished either second or tied-second four times, with his first narrow miss coming in 1937. That was a second-place finish outright, then he finished fifth two years later. He also came second in 1947 and fifth in 1948, then was tied-second in 1949, the year that he won the Masters and the PGA Championship. Another second-place finish came about in 1953. He had a top-ten finish four more times in his career, playing in his final US Open in 1977 when he failed to make the cut, having finished tied-29th four years before.
Open Championship Wins: 1
The overseas nature of the Open Championship meant that it was a competition that Snead entered fewer times than the other three Majors. His first attempt at winning it saw him tied-11th, then he didn’t enter it for a few years before the tournament stopped taking place because of the outbreak of the Second World War. When it returned to the schedule in 1946 he won it for the first and only time in his career, not entering again until 1962 when he finished tied-sixth. He was back two years later but failed to make the cut, which was also the case when he entered the competition for the final time in 1976, 30 years after he’d won it.
1946 – Victory at St Andrews after the End of WWII
The Open Championship of 1946 was held at the St Andrews Old Course in Scotland, which many people consider to be the home of golf. The field was 100 initially, but only 38 players made it after the cut. No American had won the competition in 13 years, with just four of them playing. Snead didn’t impress the Scottish when he said the course, ‘looks like an old abandoned kinda place’. He was tied-fourth at the end of day one after shooting a -2 score of 71, following that up with a 70 on the Thursday. On the Friday morning he managed a 74, putting him tied-first. When he shot 75 on the final day, it was the best score in the field and he won by four strokes with a -2 total of 290 across the week.