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Hagen, Walter Charles
| Personal data: |
|
| NAME: | Walter Charles Hagen |
| DATE OF BIRTH: | December 21, 1892|
| PLACE OF BIRTH: | Rochester, New York, (NY)|
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION: | American professional golfer With eleven major wins, the most successful golfer of the first half of the 20th century Pioneers of professional golf |
| DATE OF DEATH: | October 6, 1969|
| PLACE OF DEATH: | Traverse City, Michigan|
Career
Walter Charles Hagen won the PGA Championship five times, the Open Championship four times, becoming the first American to win the game there in 1922, and the US Open twice.
Despite a non-existent PGA TOUR, he clinched 34 more victories in North American tournaments and in the first six Ryder Cup matches he shone as a very active captain, which cannot be compared to non-playing.
Unfortunately, the Masters, the so-called fourth major tournament, was only brought into being when Walter Hagen was almost at the end of his career and had therefore already passed his sporting peak.
At that time, however, the Western Open was considered a major, which he won five times.
But Hagen shone most in match play competitions, also known as match play, where he was also considered the greatest player of all time.
In the years 1921 to 1928 he lost only one of 33 competitions in this form.
In a 1926 72-hole match, Walter Hagen defeated Bobby Jones by a meaningful score of 12 & 11. This meant the game was decided shortly after 61 holes. At the time, Bobby Jones determined the best player in golf history and declared after the game:
"When a man misses his drive, and then misses his second shot, and then wins the hole with a birdie, it gets my goat."
It was true that Hagen mostly played moderate to poor fairway shots and tee shots, but made up for it with an easy hand in his great short game around the green as he was also widely known as one of the best putters.
As if golf wasn`t enough for him, Walter Hagen also had a talent for playing baseball.
In the end, he decided to pursue his golf career anyway and canceled an audition for the Philadelphia Phillies in order to be able to play in a golf tournament instead. A very good decision as it turned out a week later when he won the US Open.
The pioneering activity Walter Hagen did and achieved much for the sport of golf and became one of the main figures involved in the development of professional golf at a time when amateurs and wannabes still dominated the sport.
The leading country in competitive golf, Great Britain was particularly affected.
Golfers who turned their passion into a profession could not, like the players of today, have the convenience of having a clubhouse or entering the clubhouse through the main entrance.
It even went so far that Hagen hired a luxury limousine for the 1922 Open Championship at Royal St George`s Golf Club, as he was not allowed into the clubhouse. Not only did he use this as a dressing room, but he still ate all his meals there.
At another tournament, Walter Hagen refused to accept his prize because they had tried to exclude him from it at the beginning of the competition.
In tournament action, he became the world`s first full-time professional golfer and the first club professional at Oakland Hills Country Club, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Walter Hagen fought persistently and bravely for higher income and recognition for professional golfers. It is also well known that Hagen was one of the first athletes to earn more than a million dollars. But as he has always said, Hagen never aspired to become a millionaire, he just wanted to live like one.
His ten-year student Gene Sarazen once said that every professional golfer holding his prize check between his fingers at the end of a game should say a small thank you to this man, Walter Hagen, because without Hagen professional golf would not be what it is today.
Walter Charles Hagen died as a world-renowned and respected personality at the age of 76 and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Tournament wins
| US Open | |
| Metropolitan Open | Shawnee Open Western Open |
| North and South Open | |
| US Open | Metropolitan Open |
| Florida West Coast Open | NMetropolitan Open Bellevue C.C. Open Open de France |
| Western Open | Michigan Open PGA Championship |
| Deland Open Championship | Florida West Coast Open White Sulfur Springs Open The Open Championship |
| Texas Open | Florida West Coast Open Asheville Biltmore Open Championship North and South Open Kansas Mid-Continent Pro Championship |
| North and South Open | Metropolitan PGA The Open Championship PGA Championship Princess Anne CC Open |
| PGA Championship |
|
| Florida West Coast Open | Eastern Open Championship Western Open Houston Open PGA Championship |
| Western Open | PGA Championship |
| The Open Championship |
|
| Long Beach Open | Miami International Four Ball The Open Championship Great Lakes Open |
| Coral Gables Open | Canadian Open |
| Western Open | St Louis Open |
| Tournament of the Gardens Open |
|
| Gasparilla Open Tampa |
|
| Inverness Four Ball |
|
US Open: 1914, 1919.
