Rodman Wanamaker: The Man Behind the Trophy

(Plucked and updated from the ARMCHAIR GOLF archives.)

HERE’S WHAT THEY’RE PLAYING FOR in the 93rd PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club. (Plus $1.35 million, plus exemptions and endorsements galore, plus getting the major monkey off their back, if they’re Steve Stricker, Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, or others.)

Ladies and gentlemen, behold the Wanamaker Trophy. Shiny, isn’t it?

Of course, as with anything that’s 93, there’s a story behind it. It’s named after Rodman Wanamaker, a Philadelphia-born man of means who took up the cause of professional golfers when they were considered to be lowly working class and not allowed in the clubhouse or locker room. Think Walter Hagen era.

Wanamaker thought the treatment of pro golfers was wrong, so he spearheaded the formation of the PGA of America and its pros-only tournament, the PGA Championship. He launched the effort with $2,500 and ordered the silver cup. Every pro who teed off on Thursday playing for the $7.5 million purse should say a word of thanks for Rodman Wanamaker, a Princeton grad who owned the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph newspaper and financed designs for experimental seaplanes that made aviation history.

The original Wanamaker Trophy was huge—more than two feet tall and two feet wide (handle to handle) and weighing 27 pounds. That’s a lot of silver to hoist. Today the PGA of America awards a smaller replica to the winner.

Multiple Winners

Beginning in 1916, the PGA Championship was a match-play tournament until 1958 when TV helped dictate the move to stroke play. With Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus topping the list, following are multiple winners of the PGA Championship.

Walter Hagen 5
Jack Nicklaus 5
Tiger Woods 4
Gene Sarazen 3
Sam Snead 3
Jim Barnes 2
Leo Diegel 2
Denny Shute 2
Paul Runyan 2
Byron Nelson 2
Ben Hogan 2
Gary Player 2
Dave Stockton 2
Raymond Floyd 2
Lee Trevino 2
Larry Nelson 2
Nick Price 2
Vijay Singh 2

Notable majors winners who didn’t win the PGA Championship and wish they had: Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Nick Faldo.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: kompuder, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

2011 PGA Championship TV Schedule and Tournament Notes

THE 2011 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP is underway at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Georgia. With the first round still in progress, Steve Stricker (photo) is the clubhouse leader after carding a 7-under 63. Jerry Kelly, who shot 65, is two back. Scott Verplank finished with a 67. Tiger Woods shot a 77, his highest round ever in the PGA Championship.


Purse: $7.5 million
Winner’s share: $1.35 million
Defending champion: Martin Kaymer

2011 PGA Championship Leaderboard

Field
Course
Tee times
Live report
Tournament overview
Tournament news


TV SCHEDULE

TV coverage of the 2011 PGA Championship is on TNT and CBS.

Thu, 8/11
2-7 pm ET, TNT

Fri, 8/12
2-7 pm ET, TNT

Sat, 8/13
11 am - 2 pm ET, TNT
2-7 pm ET, CBS

Sun, 8/14
11 am - 2 pm ET, TNT
2-7 pm ET, CBS


−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Keith Allison, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship TV Schedule and Tournament Notes

Tiger made a clutch birdie on 18 to square his match
with Thomas Bjorn, and then lost on the 19th hole.

THE 2011 WGC-ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY Championship is underway at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Dove Mountain, in Marana, Arizona. The field of 64 sliced in half. Early high-seed exits: Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker, Jim Furyk, Ian Poulter, Dustin Johnson and Retief Goosen. This is match play, folks. Anything can happen.

Purse: $8.5 million
Winner’s share: $1.4 million
Defending champion: Ian Poulter

The brackets
The course
Tournament overview
Tournament news
Video
Interviews
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship website


2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship Live Scoring


TV SCHEDULE

TV coverage of the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is on Golf Channel and NBC. All times Eastern.

GOLF
Wed 12 – 6 pm
Thu 2 – 6 pm
Fri 2 – 6 pm
Sat 12 – 2 pm
Sun 9 – 1 pm

NBC
Sat 2 – 6 pm
Sun 2 – 6 pm

−The Armchair Golfer

2011 Northern Trust Open TV Schedule and Tournament Notes

THE 2011 NORTHERN TRUST OPEN is underway at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California. Let’s just call it LA, where, to quote Neil Diamond, “the sun shines most the time. And the feeling is lay back.” Currently, there are a bunch of 67s on the leaderboard. Three of them were posted by Aussies Robert Allenby, John Senden and Aaron Baddeley.

Purse: $6.5 million
Winner’s share: $1.17 million
Defending champion: Steve Stricker


Inside the field
Inside the course
Tee times
Tournament overview
Tournament news
Interviews
Northern Trust Open website



2011 Northern Trust Open Leaderboard


TV SCHEDULE

TV coverage of the 2011 Northern Trust Open is on Golf Channel and CBS.

Thu, 2/17:
GOLF 3p - 6p ET

Fri, 2/18:
GOLF 3p - 6p ET

Sat, 2/19:
GOLF 1p - 2:30p ET
CBS 3p - 6P ET

Sun, 2/20:
GOLF 1p - 2:30p ET
CBS 3p - 6:30P ET

SIRIUS-XM broadcast times

−The Armchair Golfer

Miguel Angel Jimenez: Putting Without a Putter

MIGUEL ANGEL JIMENEZ MISSED a three-footer last week at The Royal Golf Club in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The cigar-chomping veteran momentarily lost his pony-tailed head. He tossed the guilty putter at his golf bag. It broke.

Putter-less, Jimenez faced five more holes with 13 clubs in his bag. Which club did he put into service on those last five greens? The lob wedge. How did he finish? He birdied three out of the last four holes to shoot 65, giving him a share of the second-round lead at the Volvo Golf Champions. He went on to finish second.

That, my friends, is another reason why Jimenez and his tour comrades have their names on their golf bags and I don’t. If Miguel can birdie three of four holes putting with a wedge, I wonder why he even bothers with a putter.

The last time I broke a putter mid-round was a couple of years ago. It was an accident. My 20-year-old Slotline simply gave out, a case of metal fatigue. I was on the 1st hole. I putted with a long iron, but soon decided it was a poor choice. I ended up using my 3 metal. That worked OK. But I made no birdies like “The Mechanic.” And I couldn’t shoot 65 in my dreams.

I didn’t see Jimenez in action without his putter, so I wondered how he did it until I read his quote: “This is not the first time I putt with a lob wedge.”

Jimenez and a stellar European Tour field tee off this week at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters. Eight of the world’s top 20 players will be in action, including defending champion Robert Karlsson, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer, Paul Casey, Steve Stricker, Ian Poulter, Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen.

Someone may have to putt without a putter—and could still go low.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Perez, Flickr, Creative Commons license)

The Golf Art of Steven Anthony Salerno

“ART CELEBRATING THE GREATEST game ever played.” That’s the message in small print as the site of Steven Anthony Salerno loads. Steven granted me permission to “hang” a few samples of his limited edition golf prints at ARMCHAIR GOLF, a fitting way to end the week. He offers signed limited edition prints in a handful of categories: Bethpage series, Pebble, greatest golfers, golfscapes and more. All are printed on 100 percent cotton rag archival fine art paper with brilliant permanent pigment inks.

Salerno’s golf art has been featured on PGATour.com in the Player Spotlight feature section, including portrait images of tour players such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker, Mike Weir, Padraig Harrington and Camilo Villegas.

Steven can play the game, too. As a teen, he won the Vermont Junior Amateur Championship. As a young man, he worked as an assistant golf professional at The Yale Golf Club and Racebrook Country Club in Connecticut. Salerno is a graduate of Parsons School of Design in New York City.

Visit his online gallery at SASgolf.com.


















−The Armchair Golfer

(Images used with permission of Steven Anthony Salerno.)

Jim Furyk Snags PGA Player of the Year Award

CONGRATULATIONS TO JIM FURYK for winning the PGA Player of the Year, an award given by the PGA of America. Furyk earned 60 points under the PGA’s points system. Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker each collected 50 points. Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson tallied 46 and 42 points, respectively.

Furyk ended a three-year drought when he won the Transitions Championship in March. That was just the beginning for the 40-year-old. He went on to capture the Verizon Heritage in April and the season-ending Tour Championship, making it his first three-win season in 18 years on the PGA Tour. He also won the FedEx Cup and its $10 million payoff. It was a career year for Furyk, and the player of the year award caps it off.

Kuchar won the Vardon Trophy, which is given to the player who has the lowest adjusted scoring average and has played a minimum of 60 rounds. Kuchar had a 69.61 scoring average. Stricker was a close second at 69.66.

In 2009, Tiger Woods won both the PGA Player of the Year Award and Vardon Trophy.

Ben Hogan won the inaugural PGA Player of the Year Award in 1948. Harry Cooper was the first recipient of the Vardon Trophy (named for British great Harry Vardon) in 1937.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Keith Allison/Flickr)

Life After 59 Not So Hot for Goydos and Appleby

PAUL GOYDOS FIRED A PGA Tour record-tying 59 at the John Deere Classic in July. He went on to finish second to Steve Stricker. Stuart Appleby matched Goydos a few weeks later with a final-round 59 that earned Appleby a victory at the inaugural Greenbrier Classic.

Their games have cooled off considerably since, especially Goydos’.

“I haven’t even made a cut,” Paul told reporters last week at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Goydos went on to break the MC slump in Boston, finishing 70th, after missing cuts at the British Open, Greenbrier Classic and PGA Championship.

Appleby said he’s happy with the way he’s playing, even though he hasn’t broken 70 since the 59, a streak of 16 rounds. It surprised him to learn that. On the plus side, Stuart hasn’t missed a cut since winning the Greenbrier. On the minus side, he hasn’t finished higher than 50th.

“I just haven’t been able to get the magic with the putter,” the Aussie said. “I can’t get to that point where I’m tipping my cap.”

Is there a 59 curse?

Must be. Appleby can’t make a putt and Goydos is out of the playoffs. Payback from the golf gods. Trust me, you don’t want to get on their wrong side.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Alex Barth/Flickr)

2010 Deutsche Bank Championship TV Schedule and Tournament Notes

THE 2010 DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIP starts Friday at TPC Boston in Norton, Massachusetts. Matt Kuchar, last week’s winner at The Barclays, leads the FedEx Cup playoffs points race.

Purse: $7.5 million
Winner’s share: $1.35 million
Defending champion: Steve Stricker


The field
Tee times
The course
Video
Tournament news
2010 playoffs primer


2010 Deutsche Bank Championship Leaderboard


TV SCHEDULE

Thirteen hours of TV coverage are scheduled for the 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship.

Friday, Sept. 3
3-6 p.m. (GOLF)

Saturday, Sept. 4
3-6 p.m. (GOLF)

Sunday, Sept. 5
3-6 p.m. (NBC)

Monday, Sept. 6
2-6 p.m. (NBC)

PGA Tour radio coverage

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Keith Allison/Flickr)