Golf's First Playboy (Walter Hagen)

Member Name: kenjohn

Product:	Walter Hagen
Date:	17/07/01 (106 review reads)
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~ ~ Walter Hagen, the great American pro golfer, was born in Rochester, New York in 1892, and died in 1967 at the ripe old age of 77.

~ ~ He is noted as the first “playboy” of World golf, and for good reason, the stories of his late night partying and revels being legendary.
Everything that Hagen did, he did with style and élan. He only dressed in the best of clothes, ate the finest food, smoked the biggest cigars, and travelled everywhere in a custom-built Daimler limousine, driven by his very own chauffeur.
Asked once why he didn’t take more care with his money, he made his now famous reply, “I don’t want to be a millionaire, I just want to live like one.”
On another occasion, on the night before the last round of a major Championship, he was attending yet another late night party. Asked whether he wouldn’t be better off having an early night and resting himself like his main opponents were all doing, he replied, “Ah. But none of them are sleeping. They’re all wide awake worrying about me!!”

~ ~ It must be remembered that this all took place in an era when professional golfers didn’t have the same high public profile and hero status as they enjoy today.
In many cases, they were only allowed to enter golf clubhouses by the “tradesman’s entrance”, and purely under sufferance from the snobbish and elite membership.
On one famous occasion, Hagen was refused entrance to the clubhouse during the 1920 British Open Championship at Deal in England.
He got his driver to park his Daimler on the front lawn in front of the clubhouse windows, and proceeded to have a picnic consisting of the finest food and champagne, right in front of the eyes of the horrified officials and members.
He duly won the Tournament, and when presented with the winner’s cheque, handed it with disdain to his astonished chauffeur as a “tip”.
Wh
en invited the following year to be a guest of the members in the clubhouse, he point blank refused, and repeated his performance of the previous year on the front lawn!

~ ~ But behind the playboy exterior there was a heart moulded from pure granite, and while at the peak of his powers between the years 1913 to 1930, Hagen won no fewer than eleven major Championships, a record that even to this day has only been surpassed by the great Jack Nicklaus.
And this was achieved at a time before the US Masters even existed, so not only did he have fewer majors to compete in, but couldn’t even attempt to win the legendary “Grand Slam” of all four majors, as it didn’t yet exist.
Hagen’s record includes four British Open victories, two US Opens, and no fewer than five USPGA Championships.
He particularly loved the USPGA, as in those days it was played in a match play, knockout format, a discipline at which he excelled.
He still holds the USA record for playing the most matches in a row without defeat, a grand total of 22 in all.

~ ~ As well as his record in the Majors, Hagen also won no fewer than 40 professional titles on the US Pro Tour.
He also represented the USA with honour on five occasions from 1929 to 1935 in the Ryder Cup, in which he won seven of his nine matches, drawing one, and losing only once. That defeat came at the hands of George Duncan who thrashed Hagen 10 and 8 (over 36 holes) at Moortown, Leeds, in 1929.

~ ~ He is credited by today’s professionals as the golfer who dragged professional golf out of the era of a second rate spectator sport, and made it the high paying profession that it is today.
Even in old age, Hagen never lost his sense of humour or style.
Giving a speech at a dinner to celebrate his 69th birthday, he commented,
“Well folks. That’s without question the easiest 69 I ever made”.
He may be gone, but his memory sti
ll burns bright.

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