This P.G.A. Champion Lost the Wanamaker Trophy. Oops.

It’s almost unattainable to speak about the P.G.A. Championship‘s Wanamaker Trophy without mentioning how the five-time champion Walter Hagen lost it in Chicago after winning the event in 1925.

As the story goes, while out in Chicago celebrating the win, Hagen gave his taxi driver $5 and asked him to take the cumbersome trophy to his hotel. It not only never arrived, but Hagen never admitted the loss to the P.G.A. until he lost the championship in 1928 and had to turn the trophy over to the winner.

The trophy is tied to the history of the P.G.A. It was named after the department store owner Rodman Wanamaker, who in 1916 formed the Professional Golfers’ Association of America.

“Rodman Wanamaker was a big fan of professional golf and perhaps even more so of Walter Hagen,” mentioned Connor Lewis, a golf historian. “He believed that professional golf was the way of the future — perhaps a decade ahead of the general public — who at that time believed in the ideals of the amateur game.”

Wanamaker invited a gaggle of golf professionals, together with Hagen, to satisfy and type the affiliation to assist elevate the skilled sport.

“In those times professional golf was not an actual occupation; it was frowned upon,” mentioned Tom Clavin, the creator of “Sir Walter,” a biography of Walter Hagen.

Wanamaker had two predominant motives, Clavin mentioned. One was to type an expert affiliation to boost the place of golf. Another: Money.

“Let’s face it,” Clavin mentioned. “There was a commercial motivation for forming the P.G.A. The man was a magnate of department stores. By forming the P.G.A., he could make golf more popular, bring more people into playing golf and sell a lot of clubs, balls and clothing.”

The P.G.A. named the cup after him, and the first P.G.A. Championship was held in 1916 at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, N.Y. Jim Barnes received the trophy, which was designed by Dieges & Clust — the identical firm that created the Heisman Trophy in 1934. The P.G.A. silver trophy weighs 27 kilos and is greater than two ft tall and two ft broad, deal with to deal with.

“Wanamaker’s prestige and his bankroll gave golf a great jump-start, and it was perfect timing,” Clavin mentioned. “It was after World War I, during the Roaring Twenties, and there were more and more professionals playing. More people started following golf and wanted to know who’s winning. There was Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen catching headlines. Professionals were starting to storm the gates. And Hagen was leading the charge.”

Hagen received the first of his 5 P.G.A. Championships in 1921, however didn’t win once more till 1924. For the 1925 occasion, Hagen lugged the trophy to the occasion at Olympia Field Country Club, close to Chicago. He received once more — however that’s additionally when he misplaced it.

In 1926, Hagen defended his title with out the trophy. It was P.G.A. coverage for the winner to return the trophy the following 12 months, in response to Bob Denney. a P.G.A. historian. Hagen informed officers, “I will win it anyway, so I didn’t bring it.” Hagen mentioned the identical factor in 1927 to defend his title.

“That was Hagen — they just laughed it off,” Clavin mentioned. “He was a showman and great for golf. Everybody was just winking — ‘Hey, that’s Walter.’”

It wasn’t till 1928, when Leo Diegel received, that Hagen confessed to shedding the trophy. Again, it was awkward, however officers shrugged it off, Denney mentioned. The lacking trophy was changed with one made by R. Wallace and Sons of Wallingford, Conn. It was prepared by the 1929 PGA Championship, with Diegel’s identify on it. Diegel efficiently defended his title in that 12 months’s match and eventually took residence a trophy, but it surely wasn’t the Wanamaker.

“You would be hard pressed to find the Stanley Cup or the Heisman where the winner actually lost it,” Clavin mentioned.

In 1931, the P.G.A. introduced that the trophy had been discovered. A janitor cleansing the basement of the constructing that had as soon as housed the Walter Hagen Golf Products Corporation in Grand Rapids, Mich., found a big field containing the trophy, Denney mentioned. How it acquired there stays a thriller.

“The taxi driver probably dropped it at the hotel, and the hotel sent it to his company headquarters,” mentioned Paul Wold, a historian of Rochester Country Club, the place Hagen was membership skilled.

Hagen, not one for a lot introspection, didn’t give it one other thought, Clavin mentioned.

“You get the impression he was a real prince of a guy,” Wold mentioned. “People loved him, and he really just raised the total esteem of professional golf.”

It’s troublesome to prime the Hagen incident, however there have been minor gaffes over the years.

In 2014, at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky, the trophy lid fell off as Ted Bishop, who was then the P.G.A. president, handed the trophy to the winner, Rory McIlroy — who caught it earlier than it hit the floor. “You saved me,” Bishop mentioned.

At the 2020 P.G.A. Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, the lid fell off once more. Collin Morikawa hoisted the Wanamaker, shaking it till the prime lid clanged off and dropped to the floor. Morikawa clutched his chest, changed the lid, gently lifted the trophy once more and kissed it.

While the Wanamaker Trophy passes to a brand new champion every year, winners additionally get a reproduction engraved on website to maintain. The P.G.A. has the unique, which is able to quickly be on show at its headquarters in Frisco, Texas.

“It would be lousy to have nothing to show for the win,” Wold mentioned. “Wouldn’t it?”