The curious case of the missing Wanamaker Trophy

The famed Wanamaker Trophy is the largest and heaviest in golf, but don’t think for one minute it can’t ever be lost – a fact legendary golfer Walter Hagen learned in the 1920s.

The famed Wanamaker Trophy is the largest and heaviest in golf, but don’t think for one minute it can’t ever be lost! A star-studded field is converging on North Carolina this week for the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow to battle it out for the coveted title, but it won’t be the original glittering piece of silverware they’re competing for. At 28 inches tall, 10.5 inches in diameter and weighing 27 pounds, the Wanamaker dates back to 1916, the year the PGA of America was founded. Walter Hagen is one of the sport’s all-time greats. A superstar of his era. He’s third on the all-time list of major winners with 11 behind only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Hagen won the PGA Championship a total of five times – the same record tally as Nicklaus – with four of those titles coming consecutively between 1924 and 1927, but it’s what happened after his 1925 triumph – exactly 100 years ago – that led to him facing a rather uncomfortable truth over many years. After his victory at the Olympia Fields Country Club near Chicago, Hagen would later reveal he lost the hefty yet highly prestigious trophy while out celebrating after purportedly giving it to a taxi driver to take back to his hotel; the trophy never made it to its destination.