Tiger’s 82 wins more impressive than Snead’s, former PGA Tour boss says
As Tiger Woods makes his first attempt this week at surpassing Sam Snead for the most all-time PGA Tour victories, the man largely responsible for pegging Snead’s number at 82 has weighed in with his thoughts on how the two greats compare.
Many of ‘Slammin’ Sammy’s’ victories — achieved from 1936 to 1965 — came before the tour existed in its current form, back in an era when there was a looser affiliation of events, rather than today’s highly structured circuit.
Indeed, in 1987, then-pga Tour commissioner Deane Beman set up a panel of golf historians to sift through Snead’s victories with a fine-tooth comb, deciding which to include in the official tally and which to discard.
The final number displeased many on both sides. Snead supporters were disappointed that several were excluded and Snead himself thought the official number should have been 89. Others felt, however, that some of the inclusions were not warranted.
But more than three decades later, Beman is comfortable with the figure of 82, while acknowledging there were some tough judgment calls that had to be made.
Although Snead and Woods are officially tied, the latter in Beman’s opinion is clearly the best tour player ever.
“Whose 82 victories demonstrate the higher level of accomplishment?” Beman said before answering his own question.
“No question in my mind Tiger’s 82 is far more significant. I’m not sure it’s even real close because when Snead won his 82 events, he was playing against obviously accomplished players but there weren’t as many back then who on any given week could have expected to win. To my way of thinking, winning 82 during Tiger’s era would be much more difficult than winning 82 during Sam’s era.”
Woods far outstrips Snead in major championships, with 15 titles, second all-time to Jack Nicklaus’ 18, versus seven for Snead.
Beman noted the difficulty the panel he appointed faced in deciding what Snead victories to count as official. For example, five of Snead’s wins came in team events.
The panel decided to include them because of their historical significance, and also to credit Snead for his four wins at Pebble Beach in California, even though one came in an 18-hole tournament in 1936.
Another was achieved in a 54hole event at Pebble Beach that ended in a four-way tie, with each player credited with victory rather than return the next day for a playoff.
But the panel also concluded that Snead had won 62 tournaments that did not merit inclusion in the official total.
Among tournaments it deemed not worthy of official victory status were the 1940 Ontario Open in Canada, because it included only one other touring professional, and an LPGA event played on a par-3 course.
“The difficulty in accomplishing what (the panel) ultimately accomplished was that until then, there was no specific criteria (for official victories),” Beman said. “They had to develop criteria in retrospect, which is always dicey and can always be clouded with personal wants and objectives.”
But if Snead’s tally of 82 is rather arbitrary, Woods’ total is anything but, because he knew ahead of time what events were official and which were not.
Snead, who died in 2002 at age 89, posted his last official victory at the Greater Greensboro Open in 1965 at age 52.
Woods, 44, said after his 82nd victory in October that he hoped to play into his 50s, health permitting.