The PGA Championship’s Wanamaker Trophy reportedly went missing in 1925 and resurfaced in 1930. The tale has followed legendary golfer Walter Hagen for a century. However, concrete evidence shows that the reality is even more bizarre than what fans have heard so far.
It has become more like a story fueled by rumors, showmanship, and unanswered questions, one that still fascinates the golf world today. And Hagen himself created many of these versions. A new report by Golf Digest states that these multiple versions result from how Hagen used to live his life on the edge. He was someone who would tweak his story to present himself as a hero. This habit of his makes him an incredibly unreliable narrator.
The story so far states that Hagen won the 1925 PGA Championship and received the Wanamaker Trophy. Back then, winners could take home the actual trophy and bring it back a year later at the next edition of the event. However, he lost the trophy in a taxi and didn’t let the PGA of America in on this.
While the story is bizarre, that might not be what actually happened.
Evidence tells a different story of the Wanamaker Trophy
While the storyline states that the trophy went missing in 1925, it actually did not. As reported by Golf Digest, historian David Mackesey tried to find the truth behind the story. He found a newspaper photo of Hagen holding the trophy after the 1926 PGA Championship on Long Island. So, there’s no clear evidence yet on when and how he lost the trophy. But yeah, as per reports, he didn’t lose it in 1925.
The story about how Hagen got it back also has multiple versions. Initially, an article from the New York Evening Journal reported that Hagen said he found the trophy himself in his old trunks. Then, the following year, he said it was found in an unmarked box in the basement of the L.A. Young & Company factory in Detroit. This was the same company that manufactured Hagen’s brand of golf clubs. Apparently, the trophy had sat there for nearly five years.
For decades, there’s been a legendary tale shared of Walter Hagen losing the Wanamaker Trophy.
Turns out the true story is even crazier.
Read more: https://t.co/Cux8PxZkqS pic.twitter.com/fzfc9chHQI
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) May 14, 2026
He once even said he had lost the trophy back in 1924, rather than 1925 or 1926, which is clearly not possible, given the newspaper with his photo from the 1926 PGA Championship.
The Wanamaker Trophy replacement
Walter Hagen won the PGA Championship four times in a row. It was Leo Diegel who broke his streak in 1928 and was expected to hold the Wanamaker Trophy but he was not given any trophy that year.
“I beat Hagen, Sarazen, and Espinosa to win the darn title, but the PGA seems to think that I don’t need anything but newspaper clippings to prove that I’m champion,” he said, according to a report from later that month about the PGA Championship 1928.
In 1929, he achieved the feat again and this time received a trophy but not the Wanamaker. A new trophy, called the Perpetual PGA Championship Trophy. It was commissioned in 1929. However, after Hagen found the original, the PGA of America brought the original Wanamaker Trophy into rotation from 1931.
Some years after that, a replica of the trophy was made. Now, it is this replica that is handed to the winner annually. Once the winner brings back the replica, they get a replica of the replica to hold on to permanently.
The perpetual PGA Championship trophy was decommissioned. It was then sold at auction to David Mackasey, the historian who found the 1926 newspaper evidence that unfolded the new timeline.
The replacement trophy eventually faded into history, but the mystery around the original Wanamaker Trophy only grew stronger. There are many conflicting versions of Walter Hagen’s story, many of them put into circulation by the golfer himself. Nearly a century later, the bizarre saga still stands as one of golf’s strangest unsolved tales.
