Sam Snead’s favorite running back has a new look. But the same complaint about buddies’-travel

Sam Snead loved golf but he still loved fishing.

He played the first one, he once said, to earn enough money to enjoy it. Fortunately. In rural Virginia where he was born and raised, both pursuits were readily available.

Celebrities around the world await Snead, of course. But he kept his ties to the place where he started: the Omni Homestead Resort & Spa, a historic property tucked into the confines of the Allegheny Mountains. In his early 20s, he was hired as the head pro at the Cascades Course, one of the area’s two prestigious properties. It remained his home team throughout his life. In 1983, at the age of 71, he shot a course record 60 that still stands.

If Snead were there today, he would find the atmosphere of the resort familiar. The mountains do not move. The trout are still holding on to the same cold streams. And the footprint of golf hasn’t changed. But you will also notice a lot of new bad things. Three years ago, the resort completed more than $150 million in renovations, a top-to-bottom renovation that touched guest rooms, the restaurant, the spa and the grounds themselves, without disturbing the bones of the grand escape that made it a destination in the first place.

Start with golf. The Old Course’s first tee has been in the same location since 1892, longer than any other continuously operating first tee in America. It is part of a building that was later remodeled by two Golden Age tycoons, William S. Flynn and Donald Ross. A short walk away, the Flynn-designed Cascades jut out from among the mountains, all compelling angles and elevation changes with a lofty dignity to match. It is ranked 35th on GOLF’s list of the Top 100 Courses to Play, making it the most rated public access course in Virginia. Combined with the Old Course, all the quality golf you could ask for, classically designed, walkable, and more attractive in the shoulder seasons. In spring, as nature wakes up from its slumber, the trees lining the highways are filled with birdsong. Come fall, when the weather changes dramatically, the leaves burn the landscape with color.

But just as golf has never been Snead’s whole story, it’s not the only draw for visitors today. Outdoor activities abound, including guided fly fishing in the same waters where Snead loved to cast his line. The surrounding mountains that formed Snead’s youth are adorned with hiking trails, now easily accessible thanks to the resort’s post-renovation program and outdoor program, which offers everything from an easy morning leg to a hike with the most ambitious mountain plans. And after the exertion, there is a spa, one of the oldest in the country, drawing on the same natural mineral springs that gave the surrounding town of Hot Springs its name and that has been drawing visitors, US presidents among them, to this area of ​​Virginia since long before Snead picked up a golf club.

That unique mix of outdoor fun and stress-relieving relaxation is by design, in keeping with the theme of Omni’s acclaimed and expanding golf portfolio. The Homestead is one of three Omni properties to earn a spot on GOLF’s list of the Top 100 Golf Resorts in the World, along with Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa in Austin and Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa, the new home of the PGA of America outside of Dallas. In all, the collection now includes about 30 courses in a dozen resorts across the country, with designs from architects ranging from Donald Ross and AW Tillinghast to modern names like Tom Fazio, Gil Hanse, and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.

Like Slammin’ Sammy, people come for golf and stay for something else.

In a group of friends, that’s what it’s all about: an invigorating adventure that quickens your heart rate but lowers your blood pressure, an active escape that gives you room to do absolutely nothing. Test yourself on the same courses where generations of golfers have played before you. Chase Snead’s course record in the Cascades, or at least he told himself he shot. Then you close out the day the way Snead would have it, club in hand, rolling golden mountains at dusk, trading fish stories for golf stories. There is no need to decorate. At the Omni Homestead, it stands up well on its own.