by CHRIS LANG |
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The next time you play the 10th hole at the current layout of Belmont Golf Course in Henrico , remember that it holds a special place in Virginia golf history . Seventy-five years ago , in late May 1949 , Sam Snead and Johnny Palmer played a 36-hole match to decide the PGA Championship , held at what at the time was known as Hermitage Country Club . As most know , Hermitage left its original Henrico County site in 1973 to move to its current digs in Goochland County . Snead and Palmer ’ s battle was the culmination of the only major championship to be played in the Commonwealth of Virginia .
Before The First Tee of Greater Richmond leased struggling Belmont Golf Course in 2019 , and before Davis Love and his design team came in to alter Belmont ’ s original 18-hole Tillinghast layout — it features a 12-hole championship course and a six-hole par-3 course — the site hosted
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the world ’ s best professional golfers , save for one prominent absence . The 1948 PGA Championship winner , Ben Hogan , was out of commission after a serious automobile accident . |
In those days , the PGA Championship used a similar format that the U . S . Amateur uses today — 36 holes of stroke-play qualifying with the top 64 players advancing to match play . The caveat : Each match |