The Education of a Golfer
is an incredible true story of how a poor kid who, while living in the backwoods of the state of Virginia grew up to become one of America's most talented and respected professional golf champions of the 20th century. Famous for his straw hat, for playing barefoot at tournaments and for not indulging in hard drinks, Sam's account of his golfing career comes with many hilarious and not-so hilarious incidents conveyed in a simple and entertaining way.
Sam is honest and forthright about both his successes and his failures. He discusses how other players helped him with his game and about how he had to teach himself to hold both his tongue and his temper. Before golfing became a "big-money" game, he writes about eating oranges for 4 days to survive a tournament and the time when rearing exotic monkeys seemed to be the only way to make more money.
For those who love to get something practical out of a book, each chapter ends with short comments on the various aspects of golf, with simple illustrations and valuable pointers. Sam lays down practical knowledge throughout the book, dealing with major issues like putting, chipping and sand traps that even an experienced golfer would love to read.
Winner of over 140 professional tournaments, Snead was the PGA's leading money winner in 1938, 1949 and 1950. He won the Vardon Trophy, for lowest scoring average, four times: 1938, 1949, 1950, and 1955. In 1949, he was PGA Golfer of the Year. Snead was inducted into several golf Hall of Fame and received the PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.