Have you ever wondered how the top prize of the PGA Championship came to be named the Wanamaker Trophy? This massive trophy weighing in at 27 pounds and measuring 28 inches high, 10½ inches in diameter, and 27 inches from handle to handle is the largest of the four Major Championship trophies.
On January 17, 1916, department store magnate and newspaper owner Rodman Wanamaker hosted a luncheon at the Taplow Club in New York City. He invited 35 prominent golfers and leading industry representatives, including World Golf Hall of Fame members Walter Hagen and A.W. Tillinghast, to explore the possibility of forming a professional golfers’ association similar to that formed in 1901 in the United Kingdom by fellow Hall of Fame members Harry Vardon, James Braid and J.H. Taylor.
As a result, the Professional Golfers’ Association of America was formed. Wanamaker had indicated that the newly formed association needed an annual all-professional championship. He offered to put up $2,500 to host the tournament and donate the trophy, which was subsequently named in his honor.
Wanamaker’s offer was accepted and his generosity led to the first PGA Championship held on October 10-14, 1916 at the Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York. The Championship, unlike the other Major Championships, was a 36-hole elimination match-play tournament.
The final match of the inaugural PGA Championship pitted two World Golf Hall of Fame members, Jim Barnes and Jock Hutchison, against each other. Barnes took home the original Wanamaker Trophy, winning 1-up over Hutchison.
In the 1920s, golfing great Walter Hagen would win the trophy five times with the final four coming consecutively from 1924 to 1927. When Leo Diegel won in 1928, the trophy was not to be found. Hagen claimed it was lost by a taxi driver on the way to his hotel in 1927. The PGA then created a replica, which the winner is allowed to keep for a year.
Now, as broadcaster Paul Harvey would say, for the rest of the story:
In 1930, the Wanamaker Trophy was discovered on accident by a porter in Detroit cleaning the cellar of L. A. Young & Company, which happened to be the firm that manufactured golf clubs with Hagen’s brand. The trophy was found safe in an unmarked case and has since been retrieved by the PGA of America.
