HOT SPRINGS, Va. — He was a raconteur, the golfer with the sweetest of swings and the signature straw hat.
Sam Snead was remembered Sunday for all that and more: the country kid who learned the game with drivers carved from maples, the barefoot caddie and the kindhearted legend who never forgot his roots.
Snead, whose self-taught perfect swing produced a record 81 victories on the PGA Tour, died Thursday. He would have been 90 on Monday.
In a tiny church across the street from where he learned the game, about 250 mourners heard how Snead bought state championship rings for the local high school when it won a football title, and how he quietly paid for improvements at his church and others in the community.
"He would give it away. He just wouldn't waste it," former United States Golf Association president William Campbell said. "Appearances can deceive, as this church, I'm sure, will agree."
The crowd of family members, friends and fellow golfers filled the sanctuary of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, and about 150 people watched the service on a monitor in the church's crowded social hall.
Among the mourners were Snead's son, Sam Jr., and his wife, Ann, and the golfer's brother, Peter. A private burial followed on Snead's farm.
Also present were golfers Doug Sanders, Curtis Strange and Tom Watson, Snead's nephew J.C. Snead, and U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va. Several of Snead's contemporaries from West Virginia, who wore straw hats in tribute.
Snead's straw hats, cocky grin and homespun humor were trademarks.
All heard a tribute to a "common man" who never forgot his roots in the Virginia mountains, and who became a "national treasure" in golf.
"No one will ever duplicate Sam Snead. No one will ever surpass Sam Snead because he was so unique," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said.
Finchem, one of four speakers to eulogize "Slammin' Sam," credited him with making the Senior PGA Tour possible, if not necessary, and with helping to promote the game worldwide as a folksy ambassador.
"What do you say when a legend passes or leaves us?" Finchem said. "Sam was, in so many ways, the best player the game has ever seen."
Storytelling, a favorite pastime of Snead's, brought laughter.
Bob Goalby recalled relishing the thought of finally collecting on a wager after a practice day at the Masters. The loser was supposed to pay up at the flagstick on the final hole, in full view of everyone there.
"One year, when I was lucky enough to win, I turned around and Sam was gone," Goalby said. "I finally tracked him down in the men's room."
Snead taught himself his swing, starting with clubs he fashioned from used buggy whips and discarded iron heads and a driver he and his father carved from the root and trunk of a swamp maple tree. Those clubs, he often said, helped him develop the timing and rhythm of his swing.
Once he turned professional, he played like no one else has.
"He was the best natural player ever," Campbell said. "He had the eye of an eagle, the grace of a leopard and the strength of a lion."
Snead's 81 victories on the tour were 11 more than runner-up Jack Nicklaus' total. Snead's first victory came in 1936; his last in 1982 at the Legends of Golf, and he won 14 more events on the Senior PGA Tour.
"Now he belongs to the ages," Campbell said, pausing to choke back his emotions, "and his like will not be seen again."