PGA Championship: A History

PGA Championship: A History

There is a 27-pound silver trophy that once spent five years lost in a Detroit factory basement. The man who lost it won the championship anyway, twice, and showed up to collect the award both times without mentioning that the original was somewhere between a taxicab and a Michigan warehouse. That man was Walter Hagen. The trophy was the Wanamaker. And the tournament built around it is the one that, more than any other major in professional golf, tells you exactly who showed up, who had the nerve to stay, and who deserved to walk off with the hardware.

Welcome to the PGA Championship.

Where It Started: A Luncheon, a Department-Store Heir, and 78 Ambitious Professionals

The PGA of America was not born on a golf course. It was born on the ninth floor of the Wanamaker department store at Ninth Street and Broadway in Manhattan, on January 17, 1916, over lunch. Rodman Wanamaker was not a serious golfer. He was a merchant, a Princeton-educated heir to a retail empire, and his sporting-goods department was being out-sold by A.G. Spalding. His salesman, Tom McNamara, a former caddie and three-time U.S. Open runner-up, had a proposal: organize the country's golf professionals into a formal association, and you earn their loyalty as customers.

Thirty-five people attended that first lunch, including Walter Hagen, Francis Ouimet, and the architect A.W. Tillinghast, who insisted the new association remain independent of the USGA. The PGA of America was formally chartered on April 10, 1916, at the Hotel Martinique at 32nd and Broadway, with 78 founding members ratifying the constitution. The mission was practical and direct: promote the game, elevate the profession, protect mutual interests, and assist deserving unemployed members in obtaining positions.

The first PGA Championship followed nine months later. Siwanoy Country Club. Bronxville, New York. October 10 to 14, 1916. Wanamaker put up a silver cup, $2,580 in prize money, and travel expenses for qualifiers. The format was borrowed from the British News of the World tournament: 32 players, single elimination, 36-hole matches. The final came down to Long Jim Barnes, a 6-foot-3 Cornish emigre who was head pro at Whitemarsh Valley, against the Scottish stylist Jock Hutchison. Barnes was 1-down with three to play. He made a four-foot putt on the 36th to win 1-up. He pocketed $500 and a diamond-studded gold medal. Walter Hagen lost in the semifinals. He would not capture his first Wanamaker until 1921.

The championship was canceled in 1917, 1918, and 1943 for the world wars. It resumed each time. Today the PGA of America is the largest working sports organization in the world, with roughly 29,000 members, headquartered since 2022 at the 660-acre PGA Frisco campus in Texas.

The Wanamaker Trophy: A Legend, a Cab Ride, and Five Missing Years

The Wanamaker Trophy is the largest and heaviest of the four major championship trophies: sterling silver, 28 inches tall, 27 inches across the handles, weighing in at 27 pounds. Its lid is finished with a finial of grapes, vine, and leaves. The original is now displayed at PGA Frisco; the champion holds a duplicate for one year and keeps a smaller permanent replica. Every winner's name is engraved on the body.

The trophy's most famous chapter is its five-year disappearance. After Walter Hagen won the 1925 PGA at Olympia Fields outside Chicago, he left a celebration party, hailed a cab, paid the driver $5, set the trophy in the back seat, and asked the cabbie to deliver it to his hotel while he went on to a nightclub. It never arrived. Hagen kept the loss secret. He showed up at the 1926 PGA empty-handed and said, "I will win it anyway, so I didn't bring it." He won. He won again in 1927. The PGA had a duplicate made. Only when Leo Diegel finally beat Hagen in the 1928 quarterfinals was the truth confessed.

In 1930, the original Wanamaker turned up in an unmarked box in the basement of L.A. Young and Company in Detroit, the Michigan firm that manufactured the Walter Hagen Golf Products line. How it got there has never been satisfactorily explained. The trophy reappeared at the 1931 ceremony at Wannamoisett.

The Wanamaker has continued to attract its share of drama. Jack Nicklaus reported it was too hot to lift after sitting in 100-degree Texas sun in 1963. Collin Morikawa knocked the lid off during his 2020 celebration. And John Daly, in 1991, reportedly used the cup for a purpose its designer almost certainly did not intend.

From Match Play to Stroke Play: How Television Changed the Game

For 42 editions, the PGA Championship was an all-match-play knockout. A format that produced punishing weeks where finalists could play 200-plus holes in seven days. It rewarded specialists, and nobody specialized more brilliantly than Walter Hagen, who won five PGAs between 1921 and 1927, including a 22-match unbeaten streak.

By the late 1950s, the math had broken down. Television networks wanted star power on Sunday. Match play could eliminate every marquee name by Wednesday. The 1957 event lost money. At the November 1957 annual meeting, the PGA membership voted to convert to 72-hole stroke play beginning in 1958.

The first stroke-play winner was Dow Finsterwald at Llanerch Country Club outside Philadelphia, closing 67-72-70-67 to beat Billy Casper by two. CBS broadcast the final three holes. It was the first PGA Championship on national television. The modern major had arrived.

From 1969 the PGA generally settled into mid-August as the season's final major, promoted starting in 2007 as "Glory's Last Shot." That tagline was retired in 2013. The most consequential schedule change came in 2017, when the PGA of America announced a move to May, effective 2019, ending a 70-year August tradition. The rationale was clean: give each major its own month. Masters in April. PGA in May. U.S. Open in June. The Open Championship in July.

Brooks Koepka won the first May edition at Bethpage Black in 2019. The current field is set at 156 players, with 20 spots permanently reserved for PGA club professionals who qualify through the PGA Professional Championship. Those club pro spots produce some of golf's best human-interest stories. In 2023, 46-year-old California pro Michael Block made a hole-in-one paired with Rory McIlroy at Oak Hill and finished T-15 for $288,333.

The Shots That Built a Century of Memory

No major has produced a more diverse gallery of dramatic moments. Here are the ones worth knowing.

Bob Tway, Inverness, 1986. Greg Norman was leading. He had led everything that year. Then Tway holed a bunker shot on the 72nd hole while Norman stood on the fringe and watched. The crowd exploded. Norman did not move for a long moment. He has never won a PGA Championship.

John Daly, Crooked Stick, 1991. The great Cinderella story. Daly was the ninth alternate. Nick Price withdrew when his wife went into labor. Daly drove 10 hours from Memphis, arriving at 1 a.m. Wednesday. He took Price's caddie, played the course sight unseen, and beat Bruce Lietzke by three. He was 25 years old. He donated $30,000 to the family of a spectator killed by lightning during the tournament. He also, reportedly, used the Wanamaker Trophy as a punch bowl at the celebration.

Tiger Woods vs. Bob May, Valhalla, 2000. Both players shot 18-under to obliterate the major scoring record. May made a 16-footer for birdie on the 72nd. Woods answered with a six-footer. He won the three-hole aggregate playoff by one, pointing at the cup before the ball fell on the first extra hole. It is widely considered the greatest head-to-head in PGA Championship history.

Y.E. Yang, Hazeltine, 2009. The first time Tiger Woods lost a major while leading after 54 holes. Yang, a South Korean journeyman, finished with a 3-hybrid over a tree to 10 feet on 18 and lifted his bag overhead on the green. Asia's first major championship winner. The golf world was briefly speechless.

Keegan Bradley, Atlanta Athletic Club, 2011. Bradley triple-bogeyed the 15th to fall five back. He still won in a playoff. His belly putter became so controversial it helped trigger golf's eventual 2016 anchoring ban. Sometimes the equipment matters as much as the shot.

Rory McIlroy, Kiawah Island, 2012. Eight strokes. The largest margin in modern PGA Championship history. McIlroy was 23. The Ocean Course was playing its most savage. He made it look like a Sunday afternoon stroll.

Jason Day, Whistling Straits, 2015. Twenty-under. The first 20-under in any major championship.

Collin Morikawa, TPC Harding Park, 2020. A 294-yard cut driver to seven feet for eagle on the par-4 16th. Played without spectators in the COVID era. The 23-year-old Cal grad joined Nicklaus, Tiger, and Rory as the only players to win their first PGA at age 23. "One of the best shots in major championship history," according to coach Sean Foley. Few argued.

Phil Mickelson, Kiawah Island, 2021. At 50 years and 11 months, Mickelson became the oldest major champion in golf history. Thousands of fans swarmed the 18th fairway in scenes more suited to a links Open than an American club. Nobody complained.

Justin Thomas, Southern Hills, 2022. Seven shots back with 18 holes to play. The largest 54-hole comeback in PGA Championship history. He won in a playoff after Mito Pereira drove into water on the 72nd. The kind of finish you describe to people who weren't watching and they don't believe you.

Xander Schauffele, Valhalla, 2024. A six-foot birdie on the 72nd hole to beat Bryson DeChambeau by one at 21-under, setting the all-time major championship scoring record. After years of close calls, Schauffele finally had his Wanamaker.

Scheffler's Coronation at Quail Hollow, 2025

The 2025 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte belonged to Scottie Scheffler from Saturday afternoon onward. The 29-year-old Texan posted 69-68-65-71 for 11-under 273, winning by five strokes over a tied trio of Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English, and Davis Riley. It was the largest PGA margin since McIlroy's eight at Kiawah in 2012. It was Scheffler's first Wanamaker and third major, after the 2022 and 2024 Masters.

The week's defining subplot was the driver-conformance scandal. Roughly one-third of the field was tested by the USGA at the PGA of America's request. Rory McIlroy's TaylorMade Qi10 was deemed nonconforming on Tuesday. News leaked Friday. McIlroy played the week with a backup, hit only 10 of 28 fairways, and finished T-47. Scheffler later revealed that his own driver had also failed pre-tournament. He switched equipment and won by five anyway. Saturday's signature shot was a 304-yard drive to three feet for eagle on the par-4 14th. Sunday's drama played out on the Green Mile, holes 16 through 18, where Jon Rahm went bogey-double-double to drop out of contention.

The Courses: A Tour of American Golf's Great Cathedrals

No major rotates through a more impressive collection of venues.

Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa. Perry Maxwell's 1936 Depression-era masterpiece on land donated by oilman Waite Phillips. Restored by Gil Hanse in 2018 and 2019. The all-time record holder with five PGA Championships, and a sixth coming in 2032.

Oak Hill's East Course, Rochester. Donald Ross, 1926. Restored by Andrew Green in 2019 and 2020. Four PGA Championships. Home to Michael Block's 2023 hole-in-one and some of the most dramatic finishes the championship has produced.

Valhalla, Louisville. Jack Nicklaus design, 1986. Tiger vs. Bob May in 2000. Mickelson over Koepka in 2014. Schauffele's record-setting 21-under in 2024. One of the warmest venues in the rotation.

Oakmont, Pittsburgh. Henry Fownes's only design. The first U.S. course designated a National Historic Landmark. Home to the famous Church Pews bunkers between holes 3 and 4. Three PGAs and a record 10 U.S. Opens.

Baltusrol's Lower Course, New Jersey. A.W. Tillinghast, 1922. Rare back-to-back par-5 closing holes. A clubhouse where President Taft once visited. Hosting the 2029 championship.

Kiawah Island's Ocean Course. Pete and Alice Dye, 1991. Ten holes hugging the Atlantic. The most seaside holes of any course in the Northern Hemisphere. Both McIlroy's eight-shot rout and Mickelson's record-setting win happened here.

Bethpage Black, Long Island. The people's country club. A state-owned public course with a sign at the first tee warning that play is recommended only for the highly skilled. Brooks Koepka won here in 2019. It returns in 2033.

Inverness Club, Toledo. The first course where professionals were permitted into the clubhouse, in 1920. A distinction that seems small now and was revolutionary then.

The 2026 PGA Championship: Aronimink & a Donald Ross Masterpiece

The 108th PGA Championship runs May 14 to 17, 2026 at Aronimink Golf Club in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. A Donald Ross design opened in 1928 and meticulously restored by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner. Of his work at Aronimink, Ross said in 1948: "I intended to make this my masterpiece, but not until today did I realize that I built better than I knew." The only course about which he ever made such a statement.

The setup is a par-70 of roughly 7,500 yards. Three of four par-3s play over 210 yards. Ross bunkering on virtually every hole. It is Aronimink's first major in 64 years, the first men's major in metropolitan Philadelphia since Justin Rose's 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, and it coincides with America's 250th-birthday celebrations.

Scottie Scheffler arrives as the defending champion, chasing the career Grand Slam. Rory McIlroy is in the field with the Masters green jacket freshly in his closet. Jordan Spieth needs only the Wanamaker to complete his own Grand Slam. The field includes 28 major champions and 20 PGA club professionals who qualified through the PGA Professional Championship at Bandon Dunes.

After Aronimink, the championship moves to PGA Frisco's Fields Ranch East in 2027, The Olympic Club in 2028, Baltusrol in 2029, Congressional in 2030, Kiawah Island in 2031, Southern Hills in 2032, Bethpage Black in 2033, PGA Frisco again in 2034, and Oak Hill in 2035. A venue lineup that reads like a tour of American golf's architectural heritage.

From Plus-Fours to Sun Day Red: A Century of Golf Fashion

Golf fashion has always been a status proxy, and the PGA Championship has hosted nearly every major chapter of its evolution.

The early game was indistinguishable from upper-class daily dress. Tweeds, waistcoats, neckties, military-style coats. The 1920s introduced plus-fours, trousers cut four inches below the knee for swing freedom, popularized in America by the Prince of Wales.

Then came Walter Hagen, who changed everything. Silk shirts. Two-tone spectator shoes. Sharply tailored suits. The largest wardrobe in professional golf. Hagen signed an early endorsement deal with Wilson Sporting Goods and famously declared he wanted to "live like a millionaire." He managed it. Sam Snead had his straw hat. Arnold Palmer had his slim three-button polos and slung cardigans. Gary Player wore intimidating all-black. Jack Nicklaus built a golden-yellow color story. Greg Norman reintroduced the wide-brim straw and built one of golf's first true lifestyle apparel labels.

Payne Stewart resurrected pre-war elegance from 1982 onward, winning the 1989 PGA at Kemper Lakes in plus-fours, ivy caps, and argyle socks, inspiring the PGA Tour's annual Payne Stewart Award honoring tradition and presentation.

Tiger Woods's Sunday red Nike polo is arguably the most recognized uniform in American sport. In May 2024 he launched Sun Day Red with TaylorMade, a premium lifestyle brand that has already become the most talked-about label in golf apparel.

The current generation has fragmented into a constellation of brand identities. Justin Thomas in Polo Ralph Lauren RLX prep. Rickie Fowler in Puma orange. Jordan Spieth in Under Armour minimalism. Tyrrell Hatton in British minimalist label Macade Golf. Jon Rahm and Shane Lowry in Greyson Clothiers. And Bryson DeChambeau in vintage Hogan-style flat caps.

Beyond the players, the luxury golf apparel category has matured into its own industry. Peter Millar, owned by Swiss luxury parent Richemont alongside Cartier and IWC. G/Fore, acquired by Peter Millar in 2018. Holderness and Bourne of Rye, New York. Galvin Green and KJUS from Europe. And the streetwear-luxury crossover labels Malbon Golf and Eastside Golf, the Black-owned brand founded by Morehouse alumni Olajuwon Ajanaku and Earl Cooper, which produced Michael Jordan's first golf-shoe collaboration and grew from $100,000 in revenue its first year to a projected $4 million by 2024.

The Luxury Portfolio Behind the Wanamaker

The PGA Championship's commercial structure mirrors the demographic profile of its viewer. Rolex has been Official Timekeeper and Official Partner since 2021, an extension of a golf relationship that began with Arnold Palmer in 1967. Mercedes-Benz has been Official Patron of the PGA of America since 2010, running activation centers and vehicle fleets at every host site.

The 2025 sponsor portfolio generated an estimated $50.42 million in sponsorship revenue across 23 partners. The audience these brands court is among the most concentrated luxury demographics in American media. PGA Tour data indicate 87% of the audience earns $150,000 or more in household income, and 47% are business decision-makers. Research finds that 90% of Fortune 500 CEOs play golf and that 65% of golf apparel spending originates in households earning over $100,000.

The 2025 PGA Championship's final-round CBS broadcast averaged 4.76 million viewers. On the ground, premium hospitality has become its own industry. Championship-tier tickets set a record in hospitality sales at Quail Hollow, surpassing 2024's record at Valhalla. Pro-Am days routinely feature Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, and Justin Timberlake. The PGA Championship is, in a literal sense, where private capital comes to watch professional golf.

Why the Wanamaker Matters

The PGA Championship's century has tracked the broader story of American leisure. A small-circle trade association founded by immigrant Scottish pros and a department-store heir. Transformed by television in the 1950s. Repositioned in the calendar in 2019. And now operating as the commercial nucleus of professional golf's relationship with luxury.

The trophy itself is the parable. Wanamaker built it to sell golf clubs. Hagen lost it to a taxi driver. Daly drank from it. Morikawa knocked the lid off. Through every chapter, match play and stroke play, August and May, plus-fours and Sun Day Red, the championship has retained the central character its founders intended. It is the major where the best professionals settle the best argument, watched by the audience most likely to buy the lifestyle that surrounds them.

Aronimink's Donald Ross masterpiece gets its second turn next week. Whatever happens on those final three holes will become the next memory in a story that has been deepening for 110 years.

It's Martini Time somewhere. Might as well watch the best players in the world while you're at it.

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