With seven wins each, they share seventh place in the ranking of major winners. They are American Sam Snead and Australian Karrie Webb.
Snead won more tournaments than any other golfer in the history of the American Tour, 82, and gave his rivals a run for their money when he had already passed the half-century mark.
At 67, he became the oldest player to make the second-round cut in a PGA Tour tournament, a feat he accomplished at the 1979 Westchester Classic. Thanks to his physical form, he was one of the veterans who gave more war after his 60s.
A native of Hot Springs, Virginia, Sam Snead died in Fall Hills, New Jersey, of heart complications on May 23, 2002, just four days shy of his 90th birthday. His death occurred just during the week of the Memorial Tournament, dedicated by the PGA to honor golf legends.
He was introduced to golf during the Great Depression by his father, who encouraged him to play by giving him a club he made himself by chiseling a branch.
Known as Slammin Sam or simply Slammer, Snead claimed 135 victories worldwide, including seven in the Grand Slam: three Augusta Masters titles (1949, 1952, 1954, the latter in a memorable 18-hole play-off against Ben Hogan), three US PGA Championships (1942, 1949, 1951) and one British Open (1946). He missed out on completing the Grand Slam with the US Open, a tournament in which he finished second on four occasions.
Possessing a “sweet swing”, as experts call the not very powerful but precise touch, Snead was the golfer who won the same tournament the most times, eight times, the Greater Greensboro Open, on whose links he won the last victory of his career, in 1965, at the age of 52 years, 10 months and eight days, thus becoming the oldest winner in the history of world golf.
He won 27 times on Tour before winning his first major. In 1950 he won 11 tournaments on the PGA Tour and became the last player to surpass ten wins in a season.
In his first year on Tour, 1937, he won five tournaments, three less than during his second season. His long drives inspired his nickname Slammin Sam (the Slammer).
Among the distinctions with which he was distinguished, he has been a member of the World Hall of Fame since 1974. He won four times the Harry Vardon Trophy for the best player of the year, three times he finished the season first in the winnings list, played eight Ryder Cups, an intercontinental competition that he captained in three editions.
A native of Hot Springs, Virginia, Snead also became the oldest player ever to make the second-round cut in a PGA tournament, a feat he accomplished at the 1979 Westchester Classic at age 67. At 62, he finished third in the 1974 PGA Championship, and at 67 he recorded rounds of 67 and 66 at the Quad Cities Open. He also won six tournaments at the PGA Seniors and five at the World Seniors Championships. In 1983, at the age of 71, he shot a round of 60 at his home club, The Homestead. His exquisite swing was a model for all golfers. Of him, another of the greatest players of all time, Jack Nicklaus, said that it was “the most fluid and elegant movement ever seen on a golf course”.
One of Snead’s famous quotes was the one that said, “Keep your beads straight, stay away from whiskey and never concede a putt.” Another, “If a lot of people would pick up a knife and fork like they pick up a golf club, they’d starve to death.” “Thinking instead of acting is golf’s number one evil.”
From 1984 to 2002, Snead hit the shot of honor with which each edition of the Augusta Masters is inaugurated. He shared that honor with Byron Nelson until 2001 and with Gene Sarazen until 1999.
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KARRIE WEBB
After a successful amateur career, Karrie Webb turned professional in 1994 at the age of 19, and in 1995 she joined the Ladies European Tour and won the Women’s British Open, which was not yet considered a major. She was, of course, named LET Rookie of the Year.
She played that same season in the qualifying tournament for the LPGA Tour, and did it in an amazing way: with a broken wrist bone, and still came second, so she made her debut on the American Tour in 1996.
In what was only her second tournament as a member of the LPGA Tour, she won the inaugural HealthSouth. “She was a name that was already buzzing before she became a star on Tour,” said Meg Mallon, a two-time US Open champion, “and she didn’t disappoint.”
He had such a good 1996 season that he finished it at number 1 on the earnings list, which was also the case in 1999 and 2000.
Webb was born on December 21, 1974 in the small town of Ayr, Queensland, Australia. There he began playing golf at the age of 8 and won his first trophy in his first tournament. “It was the first time I played 18 holes,” he reminisced. “I shot 150 the first two days and then 135, and I won the Stimulus Award.” She didn’t know she had finished in last place. “I didn’t find out until I got a little older.”
Webb got all the encouragement he needed from his trainer, Kelvin Haller, a quadriplegic who was unable to use his hands and legs as a result of an accident. at his workplace occurred 15 years earlier. “I knew she was good,” he said, “but I really had no idea how much she was. None of us did. It’s a small town. When Karrie played in that first British Open and, bang, won it, I guess we all started to get it.”
Haller still lives and trains in Ayr and, because she has slight movement in her right arm, she is able to communicate with Webb via the Internet. She frequently sends him a video of her current swing. He then analyzes it on his computer against his previous swings and, if he thinks she needs any instruction, he will phone her or communicate via e-mail. Once a year, when Webb returns to Ayr at Christmas, they have a chance to work together in person.
Karrie’s command of all game situations is extraordinary, as is her swing and her handling of all clubs. “She is one of the best hitters to come out of our Tour,” Mallon said. “I love watching her play golf because she has mastered all the clubs.”
Webb has become Australia’s most successful player, its golf icon. She dominated the LPGA Tour in the 1999 and 2000 seasons, winning Player of the Year in both. In 1999 she won six times and finished twenty-two in the top 10, and the following year she scored another seven victories. “During those two years,” said Juli Inkster, also a seven-time major winner like Webb, “when she was in the field, everyone felt like they were playing for second place.”
In 2001, Karrie won two more majors. She was the only one to finish under par at the U.S. Women’s Open, successfully defending her title and earning enough points for the Hall of Fame. With her two-stroke victory at the LPGA Championship, Webb became one of only six women to achieve the LPGA Tour Grand Slam (Inkster, Pat Bradley, Mickey Wright, Louise Suggs and Annika Sorenstam had previously achieved it), as well as the youngest, at 26. In 2002 she won the Women’s British Open (now designated as a major) in what was her sixth major victory and became the first player in the history of the LPGA Tour to achieve the Super Slam, which is achieved by winning all five majors during her career. In 2006 at the Nabisco Championship, she added her seventh and presumably last major.
At only 30 years old, she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Now, at the age of 44, she is still fighting in the LPGA Tour, although the results are not, of course, those of yesteryear. Her last triumphs on that circuit date back to 2014: ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open and JCTB Founders Cup.
This season, he had played eight tournaments up to August, missed the cut in half of them and his best result was a 27th place.
Fortunately, he doesn’t need competition money to make ends meet, especially if he manages the money he has earned during his career on the LPG Tour well: just over $20 million in prize money, to which must be added the surely many more he has pocketed from brand advertising.
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