Winner at Oakmont

Slamming Sam Snead, the lanky West Virginian whose tee-to-green game is the best in golf, was having a hot spell last week. Going into the final match of the Professional Golfers' Association championship at the Oakmont (Pa.) Country

Club, Snead was 17 strokes under par after defeating five topflight opponents. Said Snead: "I don't know that I've ever scored better." In the final, against Newcomer Walter Burkemo, Snead outdid himself.

A booming drive and a well-placed approach shot left him 40 ft. from the pin on the 483-yd. first hole (par five). Burkemo, also well-placed, was in line for a birdie. He got it, too. Then Snead, taking dead aim from the fringe of the green, chipped into the cup for an eagle three. "After that start," said Snead in his corn-pone drawl, "ah thought unless Burkemo goes hawg wile, ah'd be O.K. Ah thought if a man can't win six up he oughta quit and go home." Sam won seven up. It was the handsomest winning margin since a newcomer named Sam Snead lost to Paul Runyan in the 1938 P.G.A. final, 8 and 7.

If it were not for nonpareil Ben Hogan, Snead would be the No. I U.S. golfer. His one weakness, which has twice cost him the Open championship, is putting; he tried 18 different putters in 1948. Even so, he has won 73 tournaments since 1937. Last year, leading the money winners for the third time, Snead banked $35,758.83. His P.G.A. victory last week was his third (the others: 1942 and 1949), a mark equaled only by Gene Sarazen and bettered only by the great Walter Hagen. Snead is glum when he loses. Last week he was grinning from ear to ear as he signed autographs after his $3,500 victory. The signature: $am $nead.

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