The Survivor: How the Wanamaker Trophy Cheated Oblivion
· Major Golf Hub
The PGA Championship's Wanamaker Trophy is the largest in major golf, but its real story is even bigger. It's a tale of loss, a lucky discovery, and a legacy.
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The Wanamaker Trophy is a giant. Of the four major championships in men’s professional golf, its prize is the largest, a silver behemoth standing 28 inches high and weighing a formidable 34 pounds. When department store heir Rodman Wanamaker commissioned the trophy for the inaugural PGA Championship in 1916, he envisioned a prize that would command respect and symbolize the gravity of the event. He succeeded, but it’s unlikely he could have imagined the bizarre journey the trophy would take—a journey that involves a nonchalant champion, a five-year disappearance, a frantic search, and an unlikely discovery in a dusty Detroit cellar. The trophy is more than a prize; it is a character in the PGA Championship’s long drama, a survivor whose story is nearly as compelling as the competitions it honors.
The Lost Years: A Major Trophy in a Dusty Cellar
The Wanamaker Trophy’s most famous chapter has little to do with on-course heroics. It belongs to Walter Hagen. "The Haig" was golf’s first true superstar, and he dominated the PGA Championship in its original match-play format, winning five times, including four consecutive titles from 1924 to 1927. After his 1927 victory at Cedar Crest Country Club in Dallas, Hagen was supposed to bring the trophy to the 1928 event at Five Farms in Baltimore. He didn’t. When PGA officials asked for the trophy, Hagen casually admitted he had misplaced it. He claimed to have entrusted it to a taxi driver in Chicago to deliver to his hotel, but it never arrived. This set off a quiet panic within the PGA. With no trophy to present, the organization had a replica made while the original remained missing. Hagen’s loss was not a brief misplacement; the Wanamaker Trophy was gone for five years. The search finally ended in 1930, not with a dramatic recovery, but with a mundane discovery. A worker cleaning the cellar of L.A. Young & Company—the firm that made Hagen-branded golf clubs—found an unmarked case, cracked it open, and there it was. The world’s premier prize for professional golfers had been sitting in a basement. Hagen’s nonchalance about the affair only added to his legend, and the trophy’s story gained its most indelible chapter.
A Tale of Two Trophies
The Hagen incident forever changed how the PGA of America handles its most prized possession. The fear of a repeat disappearance led to a permanent change in protocol. The original Wanamaker Trophy, the very same one commissioned in 1916 and found in that Detroit cellar, is now reserved for ceremonial duties. It is present on the 18th green for the champion, who gets to hoist the 34-pound giant in the ultimate moment of victory, as recent winners like Scottie Scheffler and Aaron Rai have done. The champion’s name is engraved on its base, joining the most legendary figures in the sport. But when the photos are done and the interviews are over, the original Wanamaker is carefully packed and secured by the PGA. The winner goes home with a slightly smaller, though still impressive, replica. This two-trophy system ensures the original’s safety while still allowing the champion a tangible symbol of their victory.
The Champion's Burden
The sheer heft of the Wanamaker cannot be overstated. Watching a newly-crowned champion struggle to lift it skyward is a rite of passage. It is not the elegant Claret Jug, passed around with ease, nor the compact U.S. Open Trophy. It requires a full-body effort to hoist, a final physical test after a grueling 72-hole examination. This physical-ity adds a unique flavor to the PGA Championship’s conclusion. The champion often looks genuinely taxed by its weight, a perfect visual metaphor for the immense pressure and effort required to win a major. For men who spend their lives perfecting a powerful and precise golf swing, the clumsy, brute-force lift of the Wanamaker is a refreshingly human moment.
More Than a Name on a Plaque
The base of the Wanamaker Trophy is a roll-call of golf history, from the early match-play titans to the modern stroke-play specialists who have conquered some of America's most difficult courses. Securing a spot on this piece of silver is an immortalizing achievement. The list of multiple winners showcases the players who have truly defined the championship across its different eras.
- Walter Hagen: 5 wins (1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927) - The match-play dominator who famously "lost" the trophy for five years.
- Jack Nicklaus: 5 wins (1963, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980) - His 1980 victory at Oak Hill, at age 40, was a defining moment in his legendary career, winning by a seven-stroke margin.
- Gene Sarazen: 3 wins (1922, 1923, 1933) - The first man to win the career professional Grand Slam, his victories bridged the early and middle history of the PGA.
- Tiger Woods: 4 wins (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007) - His back-to-back wins on two separate occasions, particularly the 2000 victory at Valhalla in a dramatic playoff over Bob May, cemented the PGA as a cornerstone of his dominance.
- Brooks Koepka: 3 wins (2018, 2019, 2023) - The quintessential modern major performer, known for peaking his game specifically for the toughest tests like the PGA Championship.
The trophy connects all these generations, from Hagen’s Roaring Twenties flair to Koepka’s modern-day power. It has outlasted them all—a silent, silver witness to a century of golf.
Key takeaways
- The Wanamaker Trophy, commissioned by Rodman Wanamaker in 1916, is the largest of the four men's major championship trophies, weighing 34 pounds.
- It was famously lost by five-time champion Walter Hagen in the late 1920s and was discovered five years later in a Detroit cellar.
- To prevent another loss, the PGA Champion hoists the original trophy at the ceremony but takes home a smaller replica.
- The trophy's immense weight makes the champion's victory lift a unique and visibly difficult tradition.
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