How Many Victories For Snead?

Depending on who you ask, golf legend Sam Snead may have 82, 84, or as many as 90 Tour victories to his credit.

While the issue may seem trivial, it’s a question that becomes more pertinent as Tiger Woods steadily accumulates victories. Assuming that Eldrick gets five victories a year, he could be as close as five years to passing Snead’s totals.

And that’s where some of Snead’s friends and supporters come in. The claim that Snead, who died in 2002 at the age of 89, is being cheated of victories.

It certainly seems that way. For example, the Tour doesn’t count his three victories in the Green Briar Invitational and two in the Sam Snead Festival because the purses were too small. And yet, those tournaments were 72-hole events that featured top fields that included Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer. The Tour also discounts Snead’s 1939 Ontario Open and 1942 Cordoba Open because they were outside the United States; at the same time, however, the Tour counts the 1945 Montreal Open as part of Byron Nelson’s 11-tournament winning streak.

Either Snead gets credit for the Ontario, or Byron only won 10 straight. It seems to me that you can’t have it both ways.

More here.