Half-Decades of Dominance: Walter Hagen

One in a Series

Walter Hagen made it respectable to be a professional golfer – which is ironic when you consider he was known as a hard-drinking, hard-partying, womanizing showman who had a habit of showing up on the first tee still dressed in the previous night's rumpled tuxedo, drink in hand.

     That's what people often remember today. What they sometimes forget  is what an amazing player he was, how much he dominated the professional game, and what he did for the sport.

     From 1924-1928, Walter Hagen won 6 of the 13 major championships he entered, including four PGA Championships in a row (he won five overall). During this stretch of majors, he finished in the top five 11 times, and never finished out of the top 10 (his worst finish was 7th, in the 1926 U.S. Open).

     An incredible run, to be sure. But now let's add a little perspective ...

Hagen launched his pro career at a time when American professional golfers typically scratched out a living working for an eastern country club during the summer, then headed south for the winter in hopes of supplementing their incomes with tournament winnings. It was not a glamorous way to make a living, a far cry from the pampered life top professionals (and even many middling ones) lead today. (Photo: NY Times/AP)
     Here's how author Curt Sampson describes the era in his best-selling book, Hogan:

As it had been since golf took hold in the United States in 1888, a professional had to have a job at a club to make any financial headway. The lone exception to the rule was the charismatic Walter Hagen, the first full-time, unattached touring professional. After winning the 1919 U.S. Open, he resigned his post at Oakland Hills Country Club for a life of tournaments, exhibitions, and drinking champagne from women's spike-heeled shoes.

To make matters worse, it was also a golden age of amateur athletics. Athletes of any sort who cashed in on their gifts for money were viewed as little more than mercenaries. Golf, in  particular, was viewed as a "gentleman's" game, played in its purest form by men who did so purely for the love of it (assuming they could afford to do so). As a result, many of the top golfers of the day retained their amateur status throughout their career. Thus, Hagen shared the golfing spotlight with amateurs such as Francis Ouimet, Chick Evans, and, in particular, Bobby Jones.
     Though clearly the two top golfers of the era, Hagen and Jones are difficult to compare. It's not quite apples and oranges; more like red apples and green apples. They played the same game, but they had different goals, different ways of earning a living (Jones was an attorney), and different tournaments available to them.

     Jones was eligible to compete in four tournaments considered majors at the time: the U.S. and British Opens and the U.S. and British Amateurs. Hagen had only three: both Opens and the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Championship – four if you count the Western Open (more about that later). Further, most professional golfers at the time did not make the trans-Atlantic voyage to play in the Open Championship (the proper name for what Americans generally call the British Open) due to the expense and the relatively small size of the purse. Hagen, however, was not most professionals. By the time he played his first Open Championship in 1920, Hagen was accomplished and popular enough on both sides of the Atlantic that he knew he could make the trip worthwhile by lining up lucrative exhibition matches and personal appearances. In addition, that first trip was subsidized by a wealthy benefactor – no doubt one who intended to make his money back by wagering on the action.

     During the 1920s, Hagen played in the oldest championship eight times, and won it four. This includes two straight wins in 1928-29, and five straight top-3 finishes. Meanwhile, Jones entered the Open Championship just three times between 1926 and 1930, in 1926, '27, and '30 – but won all three times. Between the two of them, Hagen and Jones won seven of eight British Open titles from 1924-1930. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

     In head-to-head U.S. Open competition from 1924-28, Jones owns one title to Hagen's none and finished ahead of the Haig four times out of five. But in their high-profile 72-hole exhibition match in 1926 – billed as the "World Championship of Golf" and promoted as something akin to a heavyweight title fight – Hagen took it to Jones, but good. Competing in match-play format, Hagen built a huge early lead and never relented, closing out the storied amateur on the 61st green, 12-and-11.
     Hagen's greatest legacy comes in the PGA Championship. Not only was he a charter member of the Professional Golfers Association, he won its championship five times in seven years, including four in a row from1924-27. In 1928 he made it as far as the quarterfinals, giving him an astonishing 22 match wins in a row against the best professional golfers in the world. It's a shame Hagen didn't get more of a chance to compete against Jones in match play. The big match-play tournaments at the time were the U.S. and British Amateurs, in which Hagen could not compete; and the PGA, for which Jones was ineligible.



Complicating the historical discussion is that the Masters – today considered the fourth major – didn't exist yet, as Jones himself started the tournament in 1934. And here's a fact that often gets overlooked: Hagen won the Western Open, which was then considered a major , five times in his career – including twice from 1924-28 ('26 and '27). So ... when you put things in what I would consider a proper historical context, and give Hagen "major" credit for his Western wins, his case for best five-year run becomes even more impressive: eight wins in 18 major tournaments for a 44% winning percentage. This far surpasses any five-year winning percentage Nicklaus or Woods ever posted in majors.

     An argument can be made that the quality and depth of competition Hagen faced does not compare to the modern era. But to win his majors, Hagen had to defeat multiple-major-winners such as Gene Sarazen (7 professional majors), Jim Barnes (4), Tommy Armour (3), Jones (7 professional, 6 amateur), and Leo Diegel (2), who ended his winning streak in 1928.

On the course, Hagen was Mickelson-esque in his style of play. A gambler and consummate scrambler, he is still today considered one of the great putters of all time. He played aggressively, often wildly, and relished the opportunity to get himself out of seemingly hopeless jams. One of his favorite showmanship ploys was to visibly fret over a shot that appeared more difficult than it was. He would lead the gallery to believe he had no chance at recovery, making the master stroke that followed appear all the more miraculous. And the crowds loved him for it – even as his reckless style sometimes drove Jones a little crazy:

I would far rather play a man who is straight down the fairway with his drive, on the green with his second, and down in two putts for his par. I can play a man like that at his own game which is par golf .... But when a man misses his drive, and then misses his second shot, and then wins a hole with a birdie – it gets my goat!

Hagen was so good and so charismatic, such a showman, that he was the first American professional able to make a good living playing only tournament golf (and, of course, in lucrative exhibitions). More importantly, he championed the cause of the professional golfer, who were often not allowed in the clubhouses and locker rooms at the private clubs where tournaments were played. Hagen's success and popularity gave him a certain amount of clout – and he used it for the good of professionals everywhere. In one famous incident at the British Open, Hagen hired a luxury car and driver, parked it outside the front door, and announced that the car would serve as his dressing room if he were not allowed use of the clubhouse facilities. (Photo: NY Times/Pacific & Atlantic Photos)
     The "professionals' rights" breakthrough came at the 1920 U.S. Open at Inverness, in Toledo, Ohio, when club officials, for the first time ever at a major golf tournament, allowed professionals to use the clubhouse locker room. Following the tournament, grateful pros (led by Hagen himself) took up a collection, purchased a grandfather clock, and presented it to the club with the following inscription (keep in mind that in 1920, amateur golfers had the wealth; professionals were considered little more than laborers):
     God measures men by what they are
     Not what in wealth possess.
     This vibrant message chimes afar
     The voice of Inverness.

That such a situation ever existed seems almost inconceivable today, but it was largely Hagen's influence that turned the tide. Grantland Rice, the leading sportswriter of Hagen's time, once wrote that "Hagen, by his tact, deportment, style, and overall color, did for the professional golfer what Babe Ruth did for the professional ballplayer."

     At an appreciation dinner in 1967, Arnold Palmer said, "If it were not for you, Walter, this dinner tonight would be downstairs in the pro shop, not in the ballroom."
     And as is so often the case, Jack Nicklaus perhaps best sums up Hagen's on-course legacy:

The records and the numbers alone speak volumes about Walter Hagen's career. But as I grew older, both personally and professionally Walter Hagen's place in history became very clear to me. Each time I was fortunate enough to carve out my own bit of history, my name was frequently linked to Hagen's, so I obviously became aware of the standards he set. To win five PGA Championships over an eighteen-year period in my career is something very special to me. For Hagen to have won as many but over a seven-year period [1921-27] is simply incredible.

Oh, and that drinking, and partying, and womanizing – much of it was just for show. A way to sell tickets and gain a competitive edge. "He was the biggest fibber of all time," Gene Sarazen once complained. "He was always the first to bed before a big match. What he would do is get into a cab the next morning and en route change into a rumpled tux, put a splash of whiskey and perfume on his clothes, and arrive like a big deal."
     But with a record like his, there can be no doubt: Walter Hagen was, in fact, a very big deal. And owner of one of the greatest five-year runs in golf history.

Half-Decade of Dominance: 1924-28

Major wins/appearances: 6/13 (46.2%); or 8/18 (44.4%) with the Western included
    U.S. Open: T4, T5, 7, 6, T4
    Open Championship: 1, DNP, T3, DNP, 1
    PGA Championship: 1, 1, 1, 1, T5 (lost in quarter-finals)
    (Won Western Open in 1926 and 1927)
Top 5: 11/13 (84.6%)
Top 10: 13/13 (100%)

Career
11 major championships
   5 PGA Championships (including four in a row)
   4 Open Championships
   2 U.S. Opens
   (plus 5 Western Open titles)
Breakthrough Victory: 1914 U.S. Open (at age 22)

Personal
Born: December 21, 1892 (Rochester, New York)
Died: October 5, 1969

Sources/Recommended Reading:
Sir Walter: Walter Hagen and the Invention of Professional Golf, by Tom Clavin
Hogan, by Curt Sampson

World Golf Hall of Fame
hickorygolfers.com

Wikipedia