By Ed Travis, Special to the World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America, the organization representing the men and women club professionals on our game’s front lines providing service to millions of golfers. Their Major Championship, the PGA Championship, also began in 1916 and will play the 98th iteration at Baltusrol Golf Club July 29-31. The Championship was not played in 1917-18 due to World War I nor in 1943 due to World War II.
Jason Day, one of today’s “young guns,” will defend his 2015 victory when he took home the Wanamaker Trophy and $1.8 million, but things were a lot different back when the first Championship was played.
In 1916 the first champion was 30-year-old James Martin “Long Jim” Barnes, an Englishman little remembered today, but a truly first-class player whose game earned him Induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Like many other early golf professionals, upon immigrating to the United States the native of Cornwall got a country club job selling equipment and giving lessons to members. Only when time allowed did he have the opportunity to play in tournaments against other professionals, many of whom were also from the British Isles.
New York City department store owner and enthusiastic golfer Rodman Wanamaker was instrumental in the formation of the PGA of America, having the idea that an organization for golf professionals would help the sales of golf equipment in his stores. For the fledgling association’s first championship, Wanamaker not only put up the prize money but donated the trophy as well. Until 1958, when the importance of television coverage became evident, the PGA was contested at match play and in the 1916 Championship final, Barnes beat Scottish-born Jock Hutchison one-up to claim the $500 winner’s share of the $2,500 purse, the Wanamaker trophy and a diamond-studded gold medal.
At 6 feet 4 inches, Barnes was nicknamed “Long Jim” but he also was among the longest hitters with a short game to compliment his distance from the tee. He repeated his PGA triumph in 1919 giving the transplanted Scot Fred McLeod a 6 & 5 drubbing in the final. Barnes was successful in other Majors as well, taking the U.S. Open in 1921 by a record-setting nine strokes, and four years later his final round heroics brought him from five behind to win the British Open at Prestwick.
Altogether Barnes had an impressive career with 21 wins on the PGA TOUR including the prestigious Western Open three times. The Western always had one of the strongest fields of the year and, before the Masters began in 1934, was thought of almost on the same level with the Major Championships. Barnes also has the distinction of being the only player to win the U.S. Open and have the trophy presented by a sitting President. President Warren G. Harding was an avid golfer and on hand the final day in 1921 at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Barnes competed against and beat the best of his time, including other Hall of Fame Members such as Hutchison, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen.
