The U.S. Open’s 10 greatest players: career rating
By Bill Felber
8. Sam Snead, -0.81 (1937-1962)
Although Snead famously never won an Open, he was actually a great Open competitor. He was a four-time runner-up with seven top fives. That’s a more impressive accomplishment than it sounds when you consider that World War II wiped out Snead’s age 30 through 33 tournaments – essentially his prime seasons.
Snead played in 22 U.S. Opens between the day he turned pro and the day in 1962 when he turned 50. Extraordinarily, he only missed one cut, that coming as a 46-year-old in 1958. The game had decidedly not passed him by; Snead tied for eighth in 1959, and was top 20 in both 1960 and 1961.
Statistically, Snead’s best showing came in his Open debut as a pro at Oakland Hills in 1937. He holed out Saturday afternoon with a 69 and a lead over Ralph Guldahl, who had 10 holes still to play. Guldahl caught and passed Snead on the closing 10 holes to win by two.
His runner-up finish amounted to 2.28 standard deviations better than the field average.
At St. Louis in 1947, Snead tied Lew Worsham by sinking a 15-foot putt on the final hole. But he lost the playoff by a stroke when he missed a 30-inch putt on the final hole. He walked away with the consolation of having finished 2.26 standard deviations better than the field average.
At the 1953 Open at Oakmont, Snead finished solo second to Ben Hogan at 2.04 standard deviations ahead of the field. But Hogan, who was unbeatable in 1953, buried Snead by six strokes.