Snead Quotes

#1. Sam Snead did to the tee-shot what Roger Bannister did to the four-minute mile.

Byron Nelson

#2. Sam Snead was born with a natural ability to keep his bar bills as low as his golf scores.

Jimmy Demaret

#3. When Sam Snead was asked how to putt, he said, 'Putt for one hundred dollars'.

Bob Schieffer

#4. My grandpa got me a set of Wilson clubs, Sam Snead models, when I was 12. Many years later, when I'd become well known, I got to know Sam, and we played a lot of golf together.

Evel Knievel

#5. Sam Snead will fly anywhere in my plane with me. Sam's not as worried about the danger as he is about saving money.

Arnold Palmer

#6. 'You know Bobby, when I was your age I'd drive the ball right over those trees at the corner.' Feeling challenged Mr. Cole hit a big driver right into those big trees. Snead then said 'Of course, when I was your age, those trees were only 10 feet high.'

Sam Snead

#7. Some golfers fantasize about playing in a foursome with Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Sam Snead. The way I hit I'd rather play in a foursome with Helen Keller, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder.

Bruce Lansky

#8. The fact that Slammin' Sammy couldn't win the Open made it all the more valuable for the players that did win. Gave it a special quality. I'd say a part of the sheen on that trophy comes from my sweat.

Sam Snead

#9. Grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird.

Sam Snead

#10. Of all the hazards, fear is the worst.

Sam Snead

#11. You've just one problem. You stand too close to the ball after you've hit it.

Sam Snead

#12. The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat.

Sam Snead

#13. The only place that's holier than St. Andrews is Westminster Abbey.

Sam Snead

#14. Those who go along get along.

Sam Snead

#15. That little white ball is always staring back at you, daring you to make a mistake.

Sam Snead

#16. Golf course architects make me sick. They can't play themselves, so they rig the courses so nobody else can play either.

Sam Snead

#17. In golf, as in life, you get out of it what you put into it.

Sam Snead

#18. Make the basic shot-making decision early, clearly and firmly, and then ritualize all the necessary acts of preparation.

Sam Snead

#19. 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.

Sam Snead

#20. I'd say that golf is about 75% mental. If your state of mind gets out of kilter, you're worse off than a tomcat floating on a log.

Sam Snead

#21. I looked like a monkey trying to wrestle a football.

Sam Snead

#22. Over the years I've studied the habits of golfers. I know what to look for. Watch their eyes. Fear shows up when there is an enlargement of the pupils. Big pupils lead to big scores.

Sam Snead

#23. I hope I'll never get too old to want to take part in this event, and I don't think I will ever age that much.

Sam Snead

#24. The fairways were so narrow you had to walk down them single file.

Sam Snead

#25. When I ask you what club to use, look the other way and don't answer.

Sam Snead

#26. What abandoned course is that?

Sam Snead

#27. Good golfing temperament falls between taking it with a grin or shrug and throwing a fit.

Sam Snead

#28. There is an old saying: if a man comes home with sand in his cuffs and cockleburs in his pants, don't ask him what he shot.

Sam Snead

#29. These greens are so fast I have to hold my putter over the ball and hit it with the shadow.

Sam Snead

#30. Of the mental hazards, being scared is the worst. When you get scared, you get tense.

Sam Snead

#31. Don't just play your way around the course. Think your way around way around the course.

Sam Snead

#32. Thinking instead of acting is the number one golf disease.

Sam Snead

#33. I was a better player at 50 than I was at 30.

Sam Snead

#34. If I could have shot 69 in the last round every time, I would have won nine U.S. Opens. Nine!

Sam Snead

#35. But you don't have to go up in the stands and play your foul balls. I do.

Sam Snead

#36. Playing golf is like eating. It's something which has to come naturally.

Sam Snead

#37. I've been on some fairways that are as good as the greens we putted on back then. We had crab grass. I remember one green where I putted through ants.

Sam Snead

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

Sam Snead

#39. Golf tip: Lay off for three weeks and then quit for good.

Sam Snead

#40. You can't go into a shop and buy a good game of golf.

Sam Snead

#41. Forget your opponents; always play against par.

Sam Snead

#42. I believe in destiny ... what's going to be is going to be. If I'm going to win, I'm going to win ... I don't give a damn what the other guy shoots. I'm going to win if it's my turn.

Sam Snead

#43. There are no short hitters on the tour anymore - just long and unbelievably long.

Sam Snead

#44. Nobody asked how you looked, just what you shot.

Sam Snead

#45. Keep close count of your nickels and dimes, stay away from whiskey, and never concede a putt.

Sam Snead

#46. I've gotten rid of the yips four times but they hang in there. You know those two-foot downhill putts with a break? I'd rather see a rattlesnake.

Sam Snead

#47. Golf is played with the arms.

Sam Snead

#48. If I had cleared the trees and drove the green, it would've been a great shot.

Sam Snead

#49. I give the ball some sweet talk. I tell it that this isn't going to hurt a bit. I'm a friend and all I'm going to do is give it a nice little ride.

Sam Snead

#50. No matter what happens - never give up a hole ... In tossing in your cards after a bad beginning you also undermine your whole game, because to quit between tee and green is more habit-forming than drinking a highball before breakfast.

Sam Snead

#51. You have more potential than you think.

Sam Snead

#52. Golf got complicated when I had to wear shoes and begin thinking about what I was doing.

Sam Snead

#53. If golfers can run around and crow when they make a birdie, I think it would be just as proper to lie down on the green and cry when you make a bogey.

J. C. Snead

#54. If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death.

Sam Snead

#55. Most people who play golf have one big trouble: they think too much. To get any real mileage out of this game you've got to sit on your imagination.

Sam Snead

#56. Correct one fault at a time. Concentrate on the one fault you want to overcome.

Sam Snead

#57. Never let up. The more you can win by, the more doubts you put in the other players' minds the next time out.

Sam Snead

#58. I go to the first tee scared to death every day. The peaks do not seem to last as long as the valleys in this game.

J. C. Snead

#59. If you can't be flexible, you can't be led by the Holy Spirit." Ian O'Malley from upcoming book Recovered and Free.

Charlotte S. Snead

#60. The only thing I fear on a golf course is lightning ... and Ben Hogan.

Sam Snead

#61. Just have a Coke or something and watch the boys go past.

Sam Snead

#62. It's okay if we get mad at each other?"
"Yeah, Buddy, it's OK, as long as we don't stay mad, and as long as we forgive each other when we mess up."
from upcoming book, "When I Am in Your Arms.

Charlotte Snead

#63. To win,you must have both talent an desire- but desire first.

Sam Snead

#64. Practice puts brains in your muscles.

Sam Snead

#65. What did I want with prestige? The British Open paid the winner $600 in American money. A man would have to be two hundred years old at that rate to retire from golf.

Sam Snead

#66. When I swing at a golf ball right, my mind is blank and my body is loose as a goose.

Sam Snead

#67. To be consistently effective, you must put a certain distance between yourself and what happens to you on the golf course. This is not indifference, it's detachment.

Sam Snead

#68. Practice your swing until it becomes a habit of mind and muscle.

Sam Snead

#69. Until you play it, St. Andrews looks like the sort of real estate you couldn't give away.

Sam Snead

#70. It's so bad I could putt off a tabletop and still leave the ball halfway down the leg.

J. C. Snead

#71. A bad putter is like a bad apple in a barrel. First, it turns your chipping game sour. Then it begins to eat into your irons and finally it just cleans the head off your driver.

Sam Snead