CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Collin Morikawa had no idea how heavy the Wanamaker Trophy was when he attempted to hoist it in the air following his victory at the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park.
The result was a near disaster.
As Morikawa grabbed the handles of the oversized silver jug and began to raise it above his head for a photo opportunity, the top of the sterling silver trophy came off and toppled to the ground, making for one of the more awkward, if not memorable, victory celebrations in golf history.
“They told me it’s heavy; they didn’t tell me the lid comes off,” Morikawa recalled on Wednesday prior to the start of this year’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. “But it is way heavier than you expect. And then they tell you to lift it over your head.”
Six years earlier, Rory McIlroy had a similar experience after winning his second PGA Championship at Valhalla.
When then-PGA Tour president Ted Bishop approached the Northern Irishman to present him the trophy for the award ceremony, the lid rolled off and McIlroy alertly snagged it in mid-air with one hand before it hit the ground, drawing a huge roar of applause from onlookers.
The Wanamaker Trophy, which includes the engraved names of every PGA Championship winner, measures 29 1/2 inches high, 27 inches from handle to handle and weighs 27 pounds, making for a somewhat awkward hoist — particularly after playing 18 holes.
McIlroy called the trophy “pretty meaty.”
“It’s nice for the pictures because your biceps are usually flexed,” McIlroy said Wednesday with a laugh as he extended his arms while pretending to hold up an imaginary trophy. ”So it makes you look a bit stronger than you actually are. But it’s very cool.”
Rich Beem didn’t really notice how heavy the trophy was after he held off Tiger Woods to win in 2002 at Hazeltine, saying there was too much adrenaline pumping through his veins.
“It could have weighed 100 pounds,” Beem said, “and I probably could have picked it up with a pinky.”
Beem said what surprised him the most was the silver trophy wasn’t all that hot despite baking that afternoon in the August sun.
Since Beem won nearly a quarter-century ago, an extra base has been added to the trophy after officials ran out of space to engrave the names of winners. The champion’s name is traditionally added before the trophy leaves the course, with five-time winners Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen appearing on it the most.
Champions are allowed to keep the Wanamaker Trophy for one year after it’s awarded, providing they return it for the following year’s presentation.
Sometimes that doesn’t work out.
In the late 1920s, Hagen was forced to admit to tournament officials that he lost the trophy, which was initially created around the time the tournament began in 1916 by Rodman Wanamaker, the son of a sportsman and heir to a department store empire and credited with helping create the Professional Golf Association of America.
Details on how Hagen misplaced it remain sketchy and have become part of golf lore.
He reportedly told the PGA of America that he left it in taxi while out celebrating one of his four straight titles from 1924-27. It resurfaced some years later, and now resides at the PGA of America headquarters in Frisco, Texas. What is used now is the replacement that was created shortly after Hagen misplaced the original.
What champions do with with the Wanamaker Trophy is up to one’s own discretion.
“If you fill it up with ice and take two bottles of Jack Daniels and a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke and a dozen limes, you’ve got yourself one frosty cocktail,” Beem joked. “I’m not saying that’s what I did.”
Once the trophy is returned the following year to be presented to the next champion, players are given a replica — albeit one that is 10% smaller — to keep for good.
Transporting the Wanamaker Trophy is no easy task.
Unlike the much lighter 5 1/2-pound Claret Jug — a pitcher-shaped silver trophy that comes with a travel-friendly case and is given annually to the winner of the British Open — the Wanamaker likely probably isn’t something you want to lug around the country.
“It’s hard to drag the Wanamaker around and say, ‘Hey guys, here you go,’” Morikawa said. “The Claret Jug is a little easier to have some fun with it.”
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