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)

The Open Makes 14th Visit to Royal St. George’s

By Landmark Media International

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP RETURNS to Royal St. George’s Golf Club this week, the only venue in southern England for golf’s most prestigious major championship. This is the 14th occasion the historic links at Sandwich has welcomed the Open—it was the first venue outside of Scotland to host an Open, in 1894—placing Kent, known as The Garden of England, in the world golfing spotlight.

(Photo: The 1st tee, with clubhouse in background, at Royal St. George’s)

Previous winners of the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s include Greg Norman (1993), Sandy Lyle (1985) and golfing legend Walter Hagen (1922 and 1928). American Ben Curtis was the winner of the most recent Open Championship at Sandwich, in 2003.

The club has made changes to the bunkering on its 18th hole to make it more demanding for the Open Championship, as well as adding five new tees and 100 yards of length to the course.

Royal St George’s Golf Club forms part of Kent’s “Regal Golf Coast,” which includes Royal Cinque Ports (venue of the Open Championship in 1909 and 1920), Prince’s (the Open venue in 1932), Littlestone (a Final Qualifying course for the 2011 Open) and North Foreland. Overall there are more than 100 golf courses in the county, which also features modern classics such as London Golf Club (a European Tour Destination and home of the 2009 European Open) and Chart Hills (designed by Sir Nick Faldo and ranked 82nd in Golf World magazine’s Top 100 Courses in the UK and Ireland).

“In many ways, there is an argument to say the Open should come down this way slightly more often than elsewhere because we are the only one in the south,” Royal St George’s Secretary Christopher Gabbey told Kent Golf magazine. “It means a lot to the county. When the Open is in your neck of the woods, it’s terrific.”

More than 200,000 spectators are expected to descend on the Kent coast during Open week, with tens of thousands more from the UK and nearby European countries anticipated to take golf breaks in the county in the months before and after the event.

(Photo: Courtesy of Landmark Media International)

Free Drawing for ‘THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major’

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP IS returning to St. Andrews this year, which also happens to be the 150th anniversary of golf’s oldest major. I have a special treat for you: a free drawing for a 304-page photographic history of the ancient golf championship.

Titled THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major and published by Rizzoli, the book features black and white and color photographs from Getty Images. The rather sparse text is by Donald Steel, with a foreword by Arnold Palmer and afterword by Peter Dawson, Chief Executive of The R&A. This hardcover measures 12.3 x 9.4 x 1.4 inches and weighs 4.8 pounds. It’s hefty and gorgeous, a prized coffee table or sports den book for any armchair golf historian. (I love my review copy. I am not giving it up. The publisher is making another copy available for the drawing.)

Here are a couple of excerpts from the publisher’s news release:

THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major revisits the history of the fourteen legendary links courses along the spectacular British coastline on which The Open has been played, with a chapter dedicated to each course highlighting the famous moments of victory, defeat, partnership, competition, and tradition that have come to define them.

The book brings together the classic images of the sport’s icons—from early stars such as Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones, and masters like Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus, to the exceptional talents of today, Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington.

OK, I must add three names not mentioned in the above publisher copy: Harry Vardon, Peter Thomson and Tom Watson. Because those three remarkable champions won the Claret Jug 16 times. (Vardon, 6; Thomson, 5; and Watson, 5.)

WANT TO GET IN ON THIS?

How to enter this free drawing: Just email your name and mailing address to armchairgolfer@gmail.com. I’ll blind draw the winner in a couple of weeks during the championship. Good luck!

−The Armchair Golfer