Approved April 12, 2004
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. That portion of U.S. Route 220 lying within Bath County is hereby designated the “Sam Snead Memorial Highway.” The Department of Transportation shall place and maintain appropriate markers indicating the designation of this highway.
It says it all in a way, that one pulls off the Sam Snead Highway into the verdant circular drive of The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia. The venerable resort oozes history, and few in golf’s annals are as venerable as Slammin’ Sammy. Along with Tiger Woods, Snead has more PGA Tour victories than anyone (82). He grew up in Hot Springs and maintained a home there until his passing in 2002, just shy of his ninetieth birthday. Snead honed his youthful skills on the resort’s courses and worked there early in his career as its pro.
Golf royalty is one thing; but the Homestead, the country’s oldest resort, has also played host to more U.S. presidents than any other, presumably starting with the first and totaling 24.*
“Though we’re fairly certain he visited, we’re not quite sure about Washington,” said Lynn Swann, the resort’s director of marketing and communications. Washington slept everywhere, didn’t he?
There’s no question that Jefferson came to take the waters at the historic Warm Springs Pools (once referred to as the Jefferson Pools). The warm, usually 98 degree mineral waters are what attracted many in the early days. An octagonal Gentleman’s Pool House built in 1761 is considered the first spa structure built in the U.S.
Three veterans of the French and Indian war bought 300 acres in the area, and the first 18-room Homestead inn went up in 1766, ten years before the ink dried on the Declaration of Independence. From then on, the Homestead experienced typical resort history — changes in ownership, fire, rebuilding, restoration.
Today, the resort sprawls across 2,300 acres. There are ample presidential portraits, old photos and historic relics scattered throughout the luxury property, but it’s anything but musty. A years-long, $150-million renovation, completed in 2023, took in all 483 guest rooms, the Pools, as well as various meeting spaces, ballrooms, bars and restaurants. Despite the vastness of the property, it exudes southern comfort, particularly on its wide veranda with a long row of white rockers.
From an extensive spa to outdoor hiking and horseback trails taking advantage of the Allegheny Mountains locale to a shooting club, an array of activities are available — and then there are the two golf courses, the Old Course and The Cascades, that are superb examples of mountain golf.
The Old Course debuted in 1882 as a six-hole circuit, the architect(s) lost to history, but refashioned into 18 holes by 1901, redesigned by Donald Ross in 1916, and tweaked by Rees Jones in 1994. The first tee has remained unchanged, and holds onto the claim as the oldest first tee in continuous use in America.
The Old Course was also where William McKinley teed it up in 1899, making him the first sitting president to play golf . . . or at least admit to it. Not all visiting Presidents played golf at the resort, but certainly the addicts like Taft, Wilson, Eisenhower, Ford and George W. Bush were unable to resist.
Could Taft have launched a ball that landed in the crotch of an oak tree only to have the tree grow around it? Who knows, but doing some tree work on the course one recent day, the grounds crew found two balls embedded in an extricated limb, and one of them had square dimples. It wasn’t new.
Mark Fry has been at the Homestead for 28 years. The director of golf, he was born and bred in the area (and was an honorary pallbearer at Snead’s funeral). He said, “It’s a pretty incredible find, quite likely a ball from the early 1900s, but we’re still investigating it.”
“The Old Course is more of a resort course than the Cascades. It has six par-5s, six par-4s, six par-3s. It certainly has some Ross touches to it — a lot of false fronts, and the greens are equally as fast as the Cascades, so it still has some teeth. But it’s only 6,100 yards from the tips, and with six par-5s you can really kind of get it going and go low there, and it’s fun for that reason,” Fry said.
The Cascades Course, says Fry, is a different animal — a William Flynn design that opened in 1924. Numerous tournaments, qualifiers and USGA championships have been held there over the years, including the U.S. Women’s Open in 1967. “It’s a championship test, a true mountain course with plenty of uphill and downhill lies, penal if your drive doesn’t find the fairway, and it plays longer than the 6,900 yards from the tips, mainly because of a few layup holes.
“The greens are on the small side, and it’s difficult if you’re short-sided playing out of the rough to greens typically rolling at 11-plus. The Cascades has stood the test of time. As Sam often said, ‘After you play the Cascades you’re probably going to clean every club in your bag.’”
Playing the Cascades in 1936 Snead carded nine consecutive threes on the back nine to shoot a 61. On the no-longer existing Lower Cascades course in 1983, Snead played the course one day when Fry was in the group ahead. His father was playing behind him, with Snead. Snead was then 71, and shot a 60.
Match that, and they might name a highway after you.
*Presidents who have visited The Homestead include Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, Harrison, McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Coolidge, Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush.