Awarded to the winner of the US PGA Championship, the Wanamaker Trophy is one of the most famous pieces of silverware in golf and boasts a rich history.
Its birth dates back more than a century to 1916, when Lewis Rodman Wanamaker, an American businessman and heir to the Wanamaker's department store fortune, who was the driving force behind the creation Professional Golfers’ Association of America in the same year.
Wanamaker invited a group of prominent players including Walter Hagen and Francis Ouimet and the association was created with the aim of elevating the professional game.
Benefactor of his namesake trophy, Wanamaker wanted the inaugural PGA Championship to be a grand display across the board.
Standing at 28 inches tall, 10½ inches in diameter, 27 inches across its handles, and weighing 27 pounds, Englishman Jim Barnes became the first player to lift the Wanamaker Trophy in 1916.
The trophy soon became synonymous with Hagen, who was crowned the PGA Champion of America on five occasions in the 1920s, including four consecutive wins from 1924 to 1927.
Despite its remarkable stature, Hagen somehow managed to lose it. When asked why he didn’t have the trophy at the award ceremony in 1926, he replied that he hadn't brought it with him because he had no intention of surrendering it.
But that’s just what happened two years later when Leo Diegel ended Hagen’s winning streak.
The exact details are unclear, but it is believed that Hagen lost it while celebrating his victory in the 1925 PGA Championship at Olympia Fields outside Chicago.
Hagen revealed later that he paid a taxi driver $5 to return the Wanamaker Trophy to his hotel while he stopped off for more celebrations.
The trophy went missing for nearly five years, with the PGA of America purchasing a smaller substitute, before the original was found in late 1930 and is now on display at the PGA of America’s museum in Florida.
Champions' names are still added annually to the original, but it is the more recent version that the PGA Championship winners now pose with.
From 1983 to 2002, 50 per cent replica trophies were designed for PGA champions, while the tournament winner has received a 90 per cent original sized replica since 2009.
