A few Snead thoughts.

Sam Snead has left the golfing world with a lot of wonderful quotes as he broke the swing and its mechanics down using his wonderful "simplistic" rhetoric.

The following short article from a transcript covers a discussion Snead had with a group of USPGA members in 1947.

Vic Ghezzi just asked me: "What are you going to talk about?" I says, "How I play golf," and I added, "I can sum that up in four words-damned if I know."

Well to get started off, I try to get relaxed. I don`t think anybody can play very tense and tight,- which I have become on several occasions.

When I first started playing golf, I had to use a three wood to get off the ground. It took me a while before I graduated. I had a bad grip, and at the time I had a boss and I tried to get a few lessons, and he said " you know you are a professional; you should know what to do."

Therefore, I had to struggle and develop some sort of grip myself.

After I ran all the squirrels out from one side of the fairway to the other, I drove them back to the other side.

But I found in having a closed face top on my backswing I had to let my left elbow come up. Naturally, doing that, I cut down my power. I was just one of your dubs. But I found, after putting my hands on the club, then breaking my hands in front of me and returning to the club, it was square.

I tried this new grip down in the palm of the hands with the thumb straight down. In doing that I don`t have much cock of the wrist; I can`t use it much. Now if I put that a little more in the fingers then I have more leverage; it can work easier and I can get a little more club head speed.

Early Snead swing combined with a film of the grip he developed

I developed a little kick with my foot, and I don`t see many doing that. It is true you take two men of the same stature, the same age and weight, both six feet tall-one can jump six feet and the other only four. Well, that`s nothing but nature.

After I thought I had developed a fairly good grip I tried letting the swing work more or less naturally.

Now, my hands look high to some people. Well, my arms are longer than the average person's. I wear the same sleeve length as a man who is 6 feet one. Well, I am about 5 feet ten and a half, so that accounts for a little more leverage.