Sam Snead Festival

The Sam Snead Festival was an unofficial money golf tournament, played from 1948 to 1961, at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.^[1] It attracted many PGA Tour players and was won by longtime Greenbrier club pro Sam Snead five times.

The tournament began as a 36-hole pro-amateur event in 1941^[2] with 18 invited top professionals of the day. Prizes were awarded for both the professional medal total and the pro-am best ball total. The event went to four rounds the next year; the first 36 holes with just the professionals, the amateurs joining in for the final 36 holes.

There is some confusion over the continuity of this tournament as it was referred to by various names throughout the years until it became the Sam Snead Festival in 1959. Depending on the source and year, it was referred to as the Greenbrier Open, Greenbrier Pro-Am, Greenbrier invitational, White Sulphur Springs Tournament or Invitational. But in fact all were a continuation of the same tournament, playing every year from 1948 through 1961. To add to the confusion, there was a prior White Sulphur Springs Open that was a different non pro-am format.