My Crazy Sam Snead Project Journey
So last Tuesday I sat down with my coffee and thought, man, golf history buffs deserve something cool about Sam Snead’s wins. Everyone just lists numbers, nobody shows the full journey. That’s when I decided to map every single victory from start to finish like a detective case.
First thing I did was grab all the tournament records from my dusty golf encyclopedia collection. Took me three days just to line them up chronologically on my living room floor. There were sticky notes everywhere – I looked like a mad scientist connecting conspiracy theories!
The Wall of Chaos Phase
Then I hit a wall. Literally. Pinned all 82 wins on my bedroom wall with yarn connecting locations and dates. Looked like some serial killer investigation board. My wife walked in and went “Nope, not living with this insanity!” Kicked me straight to the garage workspace.
Real problems started when I found contradictions between sources. Some said 1946 Greensboro Open, others listed it as 1945. Had to call Bob – my golf historian buddy who smells like cigars and old books – and we argued for two hours about newspaper archives.
Major breakthrough moment
Finally dug up microfilm at the library that showed Sam’s first win at 1936 West Virginia Closed Pro. The film machine ate my quarter and the librarian yelled at me for yelling “YES!” when I found it. Totally worth it though.
Putting Humpty Dumpty Together
Here’s how I structured the chaos:
- First created a massive spreadsheet with columns for year, tournament, location, margin of victory
- Colored wins by decade using highlighters till my fingers turned blue
- Made index cards for each win to physically rearrange timelines
- Marked career turning points with red pushpins on my USA map
Discovered wild patterns too! Like how Sam won five tournaments back-to-back in 1949. The man was a machine!
Final Victory Lap
After two weeks of garage isolation and coffee overdose, I finally had the complete picture. The moment I pinned that last victory card – 1965 Greater Greensboro Open at age 52 – I did a happy dance and knocked over my coffee onto the timeline. Typical. But guess what? The stained version actually looks more authentic now!
