J.C. Snead, who knew he could never match the golfing success of his celebrated uncle Sam Snead but who nevertheless won a combined 12 tournaments on the PGA Tour and senior tour, died on April 25 at his home in Hot Springs, Va. He was 84.
Suzie (Bryant) Snead, his caregiver and former wife, said the cause was prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.
When Snead joined the PGA Tour in 1968 at age 27, he understood that he would always play in the shadow of his Uncle Sam, nicknamed Slammin’ Sammy Snead, whose 82 victories on the PGA Tour were a record until Tiger Woods tied him in 2019.
“There was no way I was going to live up to his reputation,” J.C. Snead told The New York Times in 1988. “With the late start I had, I didn’t have a prayer to be what Sam was. I wasn’t trying to be.”
J.C. Snead won for the first time at the Tucson Open in February 1971. He followed that victory with another two weeks later at the Doral-Eastern Open, in Miami. During the final round at Doral, as Snead was preparing his approach shot to the 18th hole, someone in the gallery shouted, “Miss it!”
Snead in June 1971. Earlier that year he had won for the first time, at the Tucson Open.Credit…PGA Tour Archive, via Getty Images
