WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — While Stuart Appleby was obviously pleased with his 59 in the final round of the Greenbrier Classic on Sunday, he said his number pales in comparison to Sam Snead’s previous record of 60.

“I think his is still the better one by far,” the inaugural Classic champion said. “The equipment for a start. I know the course was smaller, but he was probably using one ball. I mean, look, I think I would have to shoot a 56 to even compare to something like that for sure.

“The 59, it’s not, I guess, a true 59 from a par-72 sense. But I think Sam Snead (had) a little bit more of a skill level than I have. I saw his card in the lockerroom and I’m sitting there going, ‘This doesn’t add up. Wow.’ It was just phenomenal. I shouldn’t say a 59 is easier today, but easier than back then.”

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Attendance figures were released for the week:

For the Pro-Am and practice rounds Monday through Wednesday, crowds of 9,100, 13,200 and 17,200 showed up.

On Thursday, 26,200 fans came to the opening round of the FedExCup tournament. The weekend proved much stronger as 30,000 came out on Friday, 41,300 on Saturday and 41,800 showed up for the final round Sunday.

That makes for a grand total of 178,800.

By comparison, with a seating capacity of 60,000 at Milan Puskar Stadium, the home of the West Virginia Mountaineers, that’s like selling out the stadium three times — in the same week.

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Bill Campbell, a two-time president of the USGA, is certainly the grand old man of The Greenbrier.

Although he played in a few PGA events, he never harbored the idea of playing professionally.

“It was never in the plans,” Campbell said. “Even then, the travel was difficult. I didn’t want to concentrate on golf like that. My goal has always been to play golf as a game. I didn’t want to lose the amateur spirit. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, those guys play the game with the amateur spirit. And I think that is one of the reasons that they had all the success they had. They play golf as a game.”

He was, though, impressed by the players.

“I think they stay in shape, something we never did back then,” Campbell said. “They are conditioned. Sam Snead was a big guy, so he didn’t really need to do that. He was physical.

“The fun I have watching these guys is how good they are, and how far they hit it.”

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Despite his hard-luck finish — which included a heartbreaking miss on a birdie putt on 17 that would have leveled him with Appleby — Overton said he enjoyed the Greenbrier Classic and will be back next year, schedule permitting.

“It’s just a great place,” Overton said. “It’s pretty cool what they’ve done with it here. I never knew anything like this existed in West Virginia. I knew there were some hidden gems in the world and this is definitely one of them.

“The golf course is fun, the hotel is cool and they’ve got all those events that go on during the week. What an awesome event. Hopefully it can continue and get a lot of good players coming back.”

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Charles Howell III certainly had a clean score card at the Classic.

He went 65-67-67-67 and didn’t have a bogey in the tournament.

The last golfer to play a bogey-free tournament and not win was Bubba Watson at the Chrysler Classic in Tucson in 2006. He finished tied for third, three shots behind winner Kirk Triplett.

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The Greenbrier Classic (68.536) joins the Crowne Plaza Invitational (68.541) as the only two tournaments this season with a scoring average below 69.

— Jim Workman contributed to this story