1947 US Open Runner-Up Silver Medal Won by Sam Snead....

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Snead falls to Worsham in an eighteen hole playoff

1947 US Open Runner-Up Silver Medal Won by Sam Snead. Not even the pantheon is immune from disappointment and regret, and despite Snead's status as one of the most decorated athletes in American sport, with eighty-two PGA Tour victories and seven Majors in his column, victory at the US Open would forever remain his white whale. His loss in the 1939 edition was particularly painful, as Snead had been mistakenly notified that a birdie was needed on the final hole for the victory, when in truth only a par was required. Believing he needed to "go for broke," Snead blasted his tee shot into a fairway bunker and failed to recover, falling to fifth place with a painful triple bogey.

Four other times Snead would feel the US Open slip through his fingers at the maddening last grasp, finishing second in 1937, 1947, 1949 and 1953. Here we present the second of his four Silver medals earned in US Open competition, an event perhaps even more heartbreaking than his nightmare of 1939. Deadlocked with Lew Worsham at 282 at the conclusion of four rounds, the pair faced off in an eighteen-hole playoff on Sunday morning to determine the 1947 Champion. Snead led Worsham by two strokes with three holes remaining, but Worsham would birdie the sixteenth and Snead bogeyed the seventeenth, leaving them dead even with only the eighteenth to play. After two shots, Snead was positioned fifteen feet from the cup, with Worsham forty feet away on the green's apron.

Worsham's third stroke nearly stopped the gallery's heart as his chip bounced into the cup and then burst free, coming to rest twenty-nine inches from the hole. Snead was left with a putt for the birdie and the victory but left it well short, and moved in to hole out in continuation. But Worsham called for an official to rule on who was away, with the tape measure determining that it was indeed Snead. Visibly flustered at the needless delay, Snead missed his thirty inch par, leaving Worsham to finish in four and claim the Championship.

This is the consolation prize earned by the brilliant but shaken Snead, an inspirational piece that reminds us that true greatness is defined by resilience in the face of adversity-two years later, he'd claim both the PGA Championship and the Masters Green Jacket. This silver medal features a soaring eagle at obverse with colorful enameled detailing and text that announces, "United States Golf Association, Organized 1894." Verso is artful engraved with the details of the event: "1947 Open Championship, St. Louis Country Club, Clayton, MO, Tied for Championship, Runner-Up in Playoff, Sam Snead." The medal measures 1.75" in diameter and is stamped "JLC & Co. Sterling" at the edge. Fine condition. Letter of provenance from Jack Snead.