Sam Snead

His eyesight is failing, the result of a degenerative condition that prevents him from seeing any shot farther than 50 yards. His legs are wobbly, the result of taking medication more than a year ago that caused them to swell to more than twice their normal size.

Sam Snead turned 88 on May 27, yet remains one of golf’s most irascible and irreplaceable figures. He still has nearly the same ability to swing, and zing.

The man many consider the most naturally gifted player in history, the man whose 81 victories spread over six decades are PGA Tour records, has returned to the Old Course. He participated last week in a four-hole exhibition of British Open champions, including fellow legends Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

The story of Snead’s first impression of the course in 1946 is nearly as famous as the man himself.

“I have told that a number of times,” Snead said in retelling it earlier this week. “I came over on the train. We came beside the golf course and I looked at it and it did not look like it was in very good shape. I looked at the fairway; it did not look to me like it had ever had a machine on it. I heard they used to use sheep to cut it.

“I finally said to the guy sitting next to me, ‘What abandoned course is that?’ Oh boy, he jumped about four feet in the air.”

When told that it was St. Andrews, Snead said in his Southern Virginia twang: “You mean they’re having a tournament here?”

“Aye,” the man replied, “the (Open) championship.”

“But once I got on the golf course, I respected it more each time I played it,” Snead said.

He wound up winning the tournament that year, at age 34, but didn’t come back to defend his title.

“It cost me $2,000 to come over in ‘46, and I got $600 (for winning),” recalled Snead. “They said, ‘You coming back to defend next year?’ I said, ‘You’re kidding.’ I came over here after I was a senior and won the Senior Championship. Guess what I made that time - $460. I said to a guy, ‘Is this my tipping money?’ I said, ‘Don’t call me. I’ll call you.”’

These days, Snead plays only a little down near his home in Hot Springs, Va. But he spends a lot of time hitting balls on the practice tee at The Greenbrier in nearby White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., giving advice to everyone from elderly hackers to former British Open and Masters champion Nick Faldo.

“I was watching an old man at home, he was taking it back real slow and his head hardly moved or anything and the ball might go 75 yards,” said Snead. “I said to him, ‘Would you like to hit it 50 yards farther?’ I said, ‘Can you swing that club?’ And he swung it and it looked pretty good. I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got a new horse here.’ ”

That’s sort of the way Faldo is feeling these days.

After watching his Hall of Fame career begin to disintegrate shortly after winning the Nissan Open three years ago, Faldo finally sought out Snead earlier this year. The result was a rejuvenated Faldo in last month’s U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where he finished seventh.

It was Faldo’s best performance in a major since coming in fourth at the 1996 British Open, the same year he won the Masters.

“I have Sam at 88 with the (best) swing of the last hundred years, and I thought it would be great to pick his brain and get some of the real key thoughts of how he played,” said Faldo, whose second of three British Open championships came here in 1990. “I asked him, ‘What were your thoughts when you played badly?’ He said, ‘I never played badly.”’