Slammin’ Sam Snead All-Time PGA Victories Leader Preservation Society Urges, Hold On!

Tiger Woods has recently announced that additional back surgery will delay his comeback to the PGA Tour for the indefinite future. See Golf Digest article here  So, not only does Woods’ chase to break Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major golf tournament victories seem even more out of reach, Woods may also experience futility chasing another amazing career record.  

 

Slammin’ Sam Snead had owned the record for career PGA victories with 82. Tiger, with his victory at the ZoZo Championship in Japan in October, 2019,  is now tied with Snead with 82 victories as well, having passed Jack Nicklaus’s second-place total of 73 PGA victories in 2012.  Snead is unquestionably one of the all-time golfing greats.  Aside from his 82 Tour victories, among his many other records is the fact that Snead is the oldest player to win a PGA Tour event: age 52 years, 10 months, 8 days at the 1965 Greater Greensboro Open,  a tournament he won eight times.  (Snead also is the oldest player to make a cut on the PGA Tour at the tender age  of 67 years, 2 months, 21 days at the 1979 Manufacturers Hanover Westchester Classic.) Snead, with his smooth swing (ask Gary Player) was smashing 300-yard drives with ease when it was an almost impossible feat, given the lack of today's superior golf technology during Snead’s heyday in the 1930s through the 1960s.  Amazingly athletic, Snead was proud of the fact that he could leap from a standstill to kick the top of a seven-foot door jamb.

 

Given Woods’ recent health problems, not only is his catching the Golden Bear becoming less likely with each passing major tournament, Woods’ passing Snead has now become a great deal more difficult as well. As fellow HOFers (of the Rock and Roll variety) Sam & Dave sang, Hold on, Sam!  

 

 

© 2012-21 R.E. Kelly

AMDG

We'll Tak' a Cup o' Kindness Yet, for Auld Lang Syne 2021

I have posted about this special topic before, but forgive me if I beg your indulgence once again. It bears repeating as we leave one horrible year  behind and move forward to a new, more hopeful one. ahead. And as the words urge, please remember to take a cup of kindness while you are it; our society sorely needs it.

Whether the world knows it or not, a large swath of humanity pays homage to Robert Burns, the poet laureate of Scotland, when celebrating the New Year.  His poem and song, Auld Lang Syne, written in 1788, will be sung at midnight by hundreds of millions of people around the globe, and I would guess that only a minuscule percentage of those revelers will know who wrote it and what it means. (The phrase Auld Lang Syne can be roughly translated as “old times” or “days gone by”.)

While I could find no reference to Robert Burns playing golf during a quick trip through the Internet, I believe he was a sportsman, as he was a member of the Royal Company of Archers in 1792.  And Burns was born in Ayrshire, home of several of the world’s greatest courses (Royal Troon, Turnberry and Prestwick Golf Club, the home of the first Open Championship).  

The best-laid schemes...

While the game of golf predates Auld Lang Syne by centuries (the first documented mention of golf in Scotland appears in a 1457 Act of the Scottish Parliament, an edict issued by King James II of Scotland prohibiting the playing of the games of golf and football  as these were a distraction from archery practice for military purposes) it’s hard to imagine a true Scotsman who does not (and for many centuries did not) have golf in his blood.  So give a passing thought to Rabbie (not Rabbi) Burns when you drunkenly warble his melancholy tribute to days gone by at midnight tonight, and dream later of making memories in the future from rounds of golf shared with family and friends.

Here are the original words to perhaps the world’s most famous poem:

 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne.?

 

CHORUS:

For auld lang syne, my jo,
for auld lang syne,
we'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

 

And surely ye'll be your pint-stoup!
and surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak' a cup o’ kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

 

CHORUS

We twa hae run about the braes,
and pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
sin' auld lang syne.

 

CHORUS

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
sin' auld lang syne.

Happy New Year!!

Copyright R.E. Kelly 2012-2021

AMDG