ARMCHAIR GOLF Roundtable: Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson

(Editor’s note: In honor of Sam Snead, whose longtime golf home was The Greenbrier, site of this week’s Greenbrier Classic, I bring you the following from the ARMCHAIR GOLF archives.)

These are real quotes and comments. The questions are made up. Welcome to the ARMCHAIR GOLF roundtable.

At the roundtable:
Sam Snead – 82 PGA Tour wins, 7 majors
Ben Hogan – 64 PGA Tour wins, 9 majors
Byron Nelson – 52 PGA Tour wins, 5 majors

Q: Gentlemen, welcome. Ben, let’s start with you. After all the rounds and practice sessions, tell us something you have learned about this game.

BEN HOGAN: Golf is not a game of good shots. It’s a game of bad shots.

Q: Byron, how about you? What about the game comes to mind?

BYRON NELSON: Golf is a lot like life. When you make a decision, stick with it.

Q: Sam?

SAM SNEAD: Playing golf is like eating.

Q: Eating?

SAM SNEAD: It’s something that has to come naturally.

Q: Ben, it didn’t come naturally for you. You constantly worked at your game.

BEN HOGAN: Very few times in my life I laid off two to three days. It seemed like it took me a month to three months to get back those three days when I took a rest. It’s a tough situation. I had to practice all the time.

Q: Byron, were you a natural like Sam or did you have to work hard on your swing?

SAM SNEAD: When I swing at a golf ball right, my mind is blank and my body is loose as a goose.

Q: Uh, thanks, Sam. Byron, any swing secret?

BYRON NELSON: Swing the club as though you were driving 60 miles an hour on the freeway. Not too fast, but not deathly slow. Once in a while, if the risk isn’t great, you can push your swing to 70, but never go faster than that.

Q: Ben, it’s well known that putting was not your favorite part of the game.

BEN HOGAN: There shouldn’t be any cups, just flagsticks. And then the man who hit the most fairways and greens and got the closest to the pins would be the tournament winner.

Q: Sam, are you with Ben on this?

SAM SNEAD: I shot a wild elephant in Africa thirty yards from me, and it didn’t hit the ground until it was right at my feet. I wasn’t a bit scared. But a four-foot putt scares me to death.

Q: How about you, Byron?

BYRON NELSON: Putting affects the nerves more than anything. I would actually get nauseated over three-footers.

Q: You all had humble beginnings. Talk about that.

SAM SNEAD: People think growing up in the hills was a handicap I had to overcome. In a lot of ways it gave me an advantage that has lasted me to this day. Just like with that stick, I’d have to overcompensate for just about everything.

Q: Anybody else?

LEE TREVINO: My family was so poor they couldn’t afford any kids. The lady next door had me.

Q: Lee? I didn’t see you come in. Any final thoughts, gentlemen?

SAM SNEAD: The only reason I ever played golf in the first place was so I could afford to hunt and fish.

BYRON NELSON: I tried to give my best to golf.

BEN HOGAN: Don’t ever get old.

LEE TREVINO: The older I get, the better I used to be!

Q: Thanks to all of you.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Source: The Gigantic Book of Golf Quotations, published by Skyhorse Publishing.)

Golf’s Greatest Streak Started on This Day

On March 11, 1945, Byron Nelson won the Miami International Four-Ball with Harold “Jug” McSpaden as his partner. It was the beginning of an extraordinary win streak that has never been matched on the PGA Tour and is one of the greatest individual streaks in the history of sports.

Byron Nelson’s 11-Tournament Win Streak
Miami International Four-Ball
Charlotte Open
Greensboro Open
Durham Open
Atlanta Open
Montreal Open
Philadelphia Inquirer Invitational
Chicago Victory National Open
PGA Championship
Tam O’Shanter Open
Canadian Open

Nelson earned just under $35,000 during the streak. “I was almost in a trance,” he told Golf Digest in 1970. That year, he won 18 of the 30 tournaments he entered, including the PGA Championship, a match-play event until 1958. He finished second seven times.

A month after Nelson’s death in 2006, President George W. Bush approved a resolution to honor the golf great with the Congressional Gold Medal for his numerous contributions to the game.

Read more at USGA.org: Museum Moment: Byron Nelson’s 11-Tournament Win Streak

How Nelson Ranks: Sports’ Greatest Individual Streaks
(From the Page 2 editors of ESPN.com)
1. Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak (1941)
2. Glenn Hall’s 502 consecutive games played by a goaltender (from 1955 to 1962)
3. Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,632 consecutive games played (May 30, 1982 to Sept. 20, 1998)
4. Byron Nelson’s 11 straight PGA victories in 1945
5. Wilt Chamberlain’s seven straight games of 50 or more points (Dec. 16-29, 1961)
6. Johnny Unitas’ 47 straight games with a TD pass (1956-60)
7. Wayne Gretzky’s 51-game points streak (1983-84)
8. Edwin Moses’ 122-win streak in the 400-meter hurdles (1977-87)
9. Tiger Woods’ four straight major pro golf titles
10. Harry Broadbent’s 16-game goal streak (1921-22)

−The Armchair Golfer

New Mexico Golfer Wins Limited Edition Print of Ben Hogan

CHIP BECKNER OF ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, is the lucky winner of the drawing for the Steven Anthony Salerno limited edition print of Ben Hogan shown at right. The golf artist graciously offered to give away the print at ARMCHAIR GOLF to celebrate the introduction of his Arnold Palmer and Seve Ballesteros limited edition prints, which you can preview at his online gallery.

Chip will receive the Hogan print, numbered and signed by Steven, along with a Certificate of Authenticity. I asked Chip to share his thoughts on winning, Hogan and his golf habits:

Woohoo! I’m excited to win this beautiful and inspiring print. I’ll be proud to hang it over my dresser or in the living room where I can see it daily and be reminded of it’s message. Steven Anthony Salerno really captures the movement and spirit of the player and the game in an artful way.

Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and Byron Nelson have always been larger than life figures to me. They were near the age of 50 when I was born, so they were already legends. I can remember men debating who was the best of the three. I take each on his own merits: Ben for his incredible drive and determination, Sam for his outstanding athleticism, and Byron, my favorite, for his winning streak and for being such a gentleman.

I played golf all through my teenage years and well into my twenties. But, career and a family put an end to time for golf. I took a hiatus for twenty-two years or so. Three years ago, I took the game back up and am really enjoying it. I belong to two men’s clubs and play in plenty of tournaments.

Thank you, Steven, for this awesome prize. I will cherish it.

And I’d like to thank all the readers who entered the drawing and regularly pass by this way. Keep coming back!

−The Armchair Golfer

Sam Snead: ‘No Man Scared Me on the Golf Course’

IT SEEMS ONLY RIGHT to mention Samuel Jackson Snead during the inaugural Greenbrier Classic because The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, was Snead’s golfing playground. I half expected Sam to return to Earth to fill out the 156-man field after Steve Marino’s last-minute withdrawal on Thursday with back spasms.

There will never be another year in golf like 1912. That was the year Snead was born. And Byron Nelson. And Ben Hogan. Three of the greatest ever came along in the span of six months and between them won 197 times on the PGA Tour. Snead was the most productive winner but won two fewer majors than Hogan. Sam’s greatest disappointment in golf was never winning the U.S. Open. He came in second on four occasions.

The following Snead comments are from his 2002 My Shot feature in Golf Digest:

People always said I had a natural swing. They thought I wasn’t a hard worker. But when I was young, I’d play and practice all day, then practice more at night by my car’s headlights.

Could I have whipped Tiger Woods? Hell, yes. In my prime I could do anything with a golf ball I wanted. No man scared me on the golf course.

I detest the fact that I endorsed cigarettes years ago; I didn’t even smoke. Lucky Strikes, Viceroys, Chesterfields, Granger Pipe tobacco—I endorsed them all. At The Greenbrier they had those ads on the walls as decoration. I made them take them all down.

I have a reputation for being tight with money, and I guess it’s accurate. But I can’t help it. The biggest Christmas I had as a kid was when I found 15 cents and a pair of socks under my breakfast plate. Poverty will make you respect money.

When Ben Hogan died, I said it felt like I’d lost a brother. Some people didn’t understand that, because Ben and I never socialized and rarely talked. But we were like brothers, because we both made the other guy better.

Snead’s longevity was legendary. Sam won his first of 82 PGA Tour events in 1937 and his last in 1965. He was also pretty efficient on his home turf, winning the West Virginia Open 17 times, his first in 1936 and 17th in 1973, a span of 37 years. Wow.

Sam Snead at The Greenbrier: A historical photo gallery

−The Armchair Golfer