Snead's son, Jack, is banking on the family name to pave the way for a Sam Snead Golf Trail that can do for Virginia what the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has done for Alabama. In short, he wants to make lush Virginia golf courses a year-around destination for one of tourism's most lucrative demographic groups -- golfers.

Secretary of Commerce and Trade Barry DuVal is the state's point man on the project. At a Jan. 5 meeting, the Virginia Tourism Board asked DuVal to recommend a consultant to study the project's potential. DuVal has met with at least three candidates, including Snead, and he hopes to have his pick in place this spring. He wouldn't release the names of the other consultants, saying the discussions were confidential. But DuVal says a proposal could be on the governor's desk as early as this summer.

"Tourism is one of Governor Gilmore's top initiatives," says DuVal. "And the golf trail is a key component." That's government-speak for "we haven't figured out the distance on this hole." But while the commonwealth is still lacing up its spikes, the private sector is already on the course and ready to take a swing.

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David Sheatsley, a senior vice president with the Virginia Tourism Corp., knows about tourism priorities. He also knows Virginia can put its money where its mouth is when it comes to golf. "Last year we spent about $400,000 promoting golf," he says. "We already have great golfing [in Virginia], but the formation of a trail would really give us a larger product to market to out-of-state residents."

Marketing has been key to the success of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama, a state that put all its advertising eggs into one golf bag. Like a novice golfer patterning his swing after a PGA pro's, Virginia hopes to duplicate the rapid rise of trails in Alabama and Tennessee.

"What we'll most likely do is follow the lead of other states," says Sheatsley, stressing that the commonwealth hasn't even commissioned a feasibility study yet. "Invite a consultant in, have them look at Virginia and see what we have and how a golf trail might best be developed."

Until that state study is done, Virginia government officials won't offer much more than platitudes about the project. But Jack Snead is working at a much faster pace. From his Hot Springs office, the home of Sam Snead Golf Inc., he's off to a shotgun start and has nine areas already picked out around the state, some with the potential for multiple courses, for the Sam Snead Golf Trail.

"I know the areas, but I can't pinpoint the exact sites because we're still in negotiations," Snead says. "By this spring, we should have quite a few projects under way -- ones outside the Washington, D.C., area, in the Norfolk area, and possibly in Richmond."

Whether Snead lands the state seal of approval or not, his project already looks like a go. He has top-flight name recognition plus the financial backing of Senior Tour Players Inc., a Massachusetts-based investment company. Already Snead and his investors have completed five golf courses in Japan, and they are involved in a development in Cleveland, Ohio.

Snead says he has been working "full steam" for the past five months on a possible Virginia trail. He is close to deals that would bring Snead golf courses to the old Arthur Godfrey estate in Leesburg and to another Northern Virginia site near Washington Dulles International Airport. Snead has an eye on existing facilities in Virginia Beach at Red Wing and Stumpy Lake, and in Williamsburg at the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club. These sites, he says, can be redesigned and expanded as the trail takes shape.

Construction should also begin this spring in Hampton Roads on Lambert's Pointe, site of a Snead-endorsed nine-hole course and driving range along the Elizabeth River. The course has the potential to expand to 18 holes.

Snead also has confirmed meetings with officials in Salem and Roanoke about the Hanging Rock course and the possible construction of a new golf course over an old landfill at Mowles Spring Park. A partially constructed course at Natural Bridge is another trail possibility, and Snead hopes to hammer out agreements for land in Fredericksburg and in the Harrisonburg-Staunton area.

Richmond is a sure bet to be included in the final trail, but no developer has stepped forward to lend land to the cause. "We may have to take out an ad in the paper," Snead laughs. "I would think someone out there would see the potential." Pocahontas State Park south of Richmond is one possible site, as is another park near Jamestown. Obviously, state government would need to approve any plans that involve state parks.

Another potential site, one of the first mentioned in conjunction with a possible Sam Snead Trail, is Douthat State Park in Snead's home of Bath County. Environmental impact studies have already come back positive, according to Snead, but the capital isn't in place yet.

"Once the word leaked out, we had calls from as far away as Norton," says Snead. "But there are some places that just won't work." Access to the interstate system is important to the trail concept, and a significant population base is a must. Financing, of course, is also a primary consideration.

Ideally, Snead and other golf developers interested in putting together a Virginia trail are looking for developers ready to donate the land to get the golf course on their property as an amenity. The golf developers would build the course and operate it as part of the trail. Later, the state would help promote the trail to bring more duffer dollars into the Old Dominion.

A golf trail would attract lots of attention around the state no matter who puts it together, but there are still a lot of "ifs" to overcome. "The permitting and things like that take forever," says Snead. "You can't really [be] publicizing anything until you go through all these hoops."

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Bob Barrett knows all about jumping through hoops. Barrett was vice president of Sunbelt Golf Corp. when it opened the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama in 1992. He now owns his own golf-development business.

"The demographics have to indicate there's a market for golf," he says. National Golf Foundation studies have shown the magic number is an area of at least 25,000 people. "The golf season is a little shorter in Virginia than it is in Alabama, but I think the project up there has some merit," Barrett says. "It's a big question, and you have to have some patient capital behind the program to develop it."

Snead says some real estate developers have already approached him about donating land. In return they could offer a golf course and discounted golf trail memberships as part of an amenities package for new homeowners. Likewise, Snead notes that the Hawthorne Suites hotel chain that has affiliated with the Alabama trail has proposed building lodging at some of Virginia's potential 36-hole sites.

State government, hoping to jump-start tourism, came on board in a big way in Alabama: Retirement Systems of Alabama, which manages the state pension fund, pledged $120 million to help the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail get off the ground. To date, about 2 million rounds of golf have been played there since the trail's inception, according to David Taylor, marketing director for Sunbelt Corp. Counting the construction costs, he estimates that the trail has had a billion-dollar impact.

The exact financial impact of the Alabama trail isn't that easy to gauge, although it is apparent. In addition to the thousands of tourists attracted to the region annually, the trail is credited with helping Tuscaloosa land a 1,500-employee Mercedes-Benz plant and with luring a 3,000-worker rocket factory for Decatur. In both cases, trail courses were used extensively in marketing the area to the businesses. Housing developments skyrocketed around the facilities. Greenville, about an hour south of Montgomery, added a 36-hole trail course in 1994. Since then, the locality also has added three hotels and a Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Alabama's Butler County had a 2,985 percent increase in monthly revenues resulting from the start-up of a course there. Autauga County reported a 90 percent increase in state lodging tax revenue due to the announcement of the development of a trail course there. And the eighth and newest stop on the trail, Prattville, anticipates 40,000 new visitors a year, according to the local chamber of commerce.

Most importantly, Alabama's trail is credited with helping change the state's image. "It's the No. 1 tourist attraction in the state," says Barrett. "I don't think they can really quantify the value of it. Alabama has historically been a state that's had a negative image, and the trail has helped bring people here to see our quality of life, which is excellent."

"From an image standpoint, it's meant everything," Sunbelt's Taylor agrees. "There have been over 3,000 articles written about the trail since we started, from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, USA Today, Washington Post, publications in Germany and the U.K. What's the value of that?"

Neighboring Tennessee saw the value. That state's legislature voted in 1993 to issue $20 million in bonds to fund the construction of four courses as part of The Bear Trace, Tennessee's version of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. The Bear Trace, which debuted last year at state park sites, gets its name from its affiliation with Jack Nicklaus. But unlike most of his signature courses, Trace venues keep the greens fees low -- around $30.

Those fees may be too low, according to at least one developer, who said the word out of the Volunteer State is that first-year revenues aren't keeping up with building and maintenance costs. That's one reason Virginia will take a long look before lining up at the first tee.

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Naturally, Snead is a salesman on the trail concept. He thinks Virginia's results can mirror Alabama's. "I saw one study done in North Carolina last year that said for every dollar spent advertising golf in your particular area, it will bring in $71," he says. "People come stay at your hotel, go to your quick marts, eat at your restaurants. That's why Alabama is so tickled to death about their trail."

Why does Virginia care about luring golfers? Sheatsley has studies that show golfing visitors spend more money, come more often and stay longer in Virginia than non-golfing tourists. Virginia Tourism's three-year study released in 1997 says a golfing group of two or more will average spending $451 in a comparable two-day stay, compared with $291 for a non-golfing family. Additionally, the golfers come an average of 8.4 times over a three-year period, compared with 7.8 for the non-golfers.

Much of the golf advertising from the South, including Virginia's, is geared toward the lucrative Canadian market. Canada has more golfers per capita than any country in the world, says Sheatsley, and they head south regularly to play in places like Alabama and Myrtle Beach.

"All those Canadians coming through here in March could be playing on Virginia courses, too," Snead says. "They're coming right down [Interstate] 77 and 95. If you can catch them for one night on the way through and one night on the way back, that's good for everybody."

Sheatsley and Snead share a belief that many of the Old Dominion's other tourist sites will benefit as golfers, attracted by new affordable courses, bring their families. And a well-planned Virginia trail could offer more variety than most other Southern states. "You've got such a difference in topography, particularly compared to South Carolina and Georgia," Snead adds. "A course here in the mountains will be completely different from one around Washington or Virginia Beach."

That said, Snead believes the hallmarks of his proposed trail will be quality and affordability -- probably around $45 per course, including a golf cart. His company has two course designs, the Sam Snead Signature and the Sam Snead All-American. The All-American, typically 6,500 to 7,500 yards long, is a little less labor-intensive to maintain. Larger tee areas and fewer bunkers and slopes mean less maintenance, and that helps keep the greens fees down. "We want to offer a really great golf course for the guy who, as my dad says, Ôpays the freight,'" Snead says. "Affordable golf for the masses."

That's the governor's vision, too, although the state isn't ready to jump on Snead's --or anyone else's -- golf cart at this point. "The private sector may in fact present a proposal to this office that meets [the governor's] objectives of creating a golf trail," says DuVal. "But there has not been any endorsement of a single private-sector initiative by the governor's office or the Tourism Corporation at this point."

"Everybody's gotta cover all the bases, do all the studies," Snead says. "We've done a lot of that already and everything's coming up real positive. I think [the state is] gonna put their arms around us, but they just want to wait and see."