The famed Wanamaker Trophy is the largest and heaviest in golf, but don’t think for one minute it can’t ever be lost.
A star-studded field is converging on North Carolina this week for the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow to battle it out for the coveted title, but it won’t be the original glittering piece of silverware they’re competing for.
At 28 inches tall, 10.5 inches in diameter and weighing 27 pounds, the Wanamaker dates back to 1916, the year the PGA of America was founded.
Walter Hagen is one of the sport’s all-time greats. A superstar of his era. He’s third on the all-time list of major winners with 11 behind only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Hagen won the PGA Championship a total of five times – the same record tally as Nicklaus – with four of those titles coming consecutively between 1924 and 1927, but it’s what happened after his 1925 triumph – exactly 100 years ago – that led to him facing a rather uncomfortable truth over many years.
After his victory at the Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago, Hagen would later reveal he lost the hefty yet highly prestigious trophy while out celebrating after purportedly giving it to a taxi driver to take back to his hotel; the trophy never made it to its destination.
Now, just imagine having to win a major golf tournament to keep a terrible secret safe – and then to keep winning it. That was Hagen’s new reality.
A year later, Hagen showed up to defend his title at the 1926 tournament without the Wanamaker Trophy. Such was the American’s dominance in this era, nobody had seriously questioned where the trophy actually was, but after a third-straight win, the question was indeed finally asked. The champ though was unfazed. He brushed it off, saying he had no intention of relinquishing his title. “I will win it anyway, so I didn’t bring it,” he added.
True to his word, he won again a year later, but all good things eventually come to an end and his incredible win streak would finally be over at the 1928 tournament following defeat to his compatriot Leo Diegel. At that point, Hagen knew the game was up and he had to come clean.
A duplicate Wanamaker Trophy had been made in 1926, but as for the original, it did mysteriously show up six years after it had first disappeared ahead of the 1931 PGA Championship.
Some reports back in the early 1930s suggested the Wanamaker was found in the Detroit golf factory that made Hagen’s equipment.
The original 1916 trophy is named after department store heir Rodman Wanamaker who was instrumental in the creation of the PGA of America.
That original is now displayed at the PGA of America’s new home in Texas, meaning it’s the duplicate that the champion gets to keep for one year. Each winner though does get to permanently hold on to a replica, which is about 10 percent smaller than the original.
Walter Hagen was not just one of the best players of all time, he was also the ultimate showman and entertainer; “I never wanted to be a millionaire, I just wanted to live like one,” he once famously said.
An undisputed legend of the sport, the Haig’s impact on golf is immense. In addition to his 11 majors, he also won 45 times on the PGA Tour. He won the US Open twice and he was the first American-born golfer to win the Open Championship going on to win the famed Claret Jug four times. He played a prominent role in the development of the Ryder Cup too serving as America’s team captain the first six times the event was held.
Walter Hagen’s legacy is both enduring and inspiring. It’s also one indelibly intertwined with one of the most iconic trophies in sports history.
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