In the hierarchy of great professional golfers, only three men in the game’s 160 year-long history have accumulated 10 or more of golf’s major championships. Jack Nicklaus is the greatest of all time with 18 major titles. Tiger Woods, the defending 2019 Masters titlist, has won 15 grand slam events. Walter Hagen, who was at the top of his game some 100 years ago, is third on this esteemed list with 11 major championships to his credit.
Hagen has previously been featured in this column, mainly because he won his first United States Open title in 1914 at Midlothian Country Club in Chicago’s south suburbs. I had the privilege of playing in the 100th anniversary tournament of Hagen’s historic win way back in 2014 at Midlothian. Hagen beat future U.S. Open champ Chick Evans by one stroke.
During the Roaring 20s, Hagen was a sporting icon in post World War I America alongside the likes of baseball’s Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Walter Johnson, football’s Red Grange, boxers Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney, and amateur golfing great Bobby Jones. Hagen was a larger than life figure, closer in personality to Babe Ruth than to any of the other sporting heroes of the day. It is thought that he was probably the first professional athlete to make more than $1 million during his golfing career. He brought a sense of class and style to pro golf, was an advocate for the rights of golf professionals of the day, and was perhaps the first of the sporting world’s true trash talkers. Hagen not only had the braggadocio of someone like Muhammed Ali, but he could also stir it up with the best of them ala Larry Bird.
In 1919 Hagen won the U.S. Open at Brae Burn Country Club in Massachusetts. Upon accepting the perpetual National Open trophy for the second time in his young career, Hagen made a most memorable comment. He shocked the assembled press that day when he was quoted as saying, “Anyone can win one United States Open. It takes a special talent to be able to win two of them.” If nothing else, Walter Hagen certainly believed in himself.
Hagen was an earlier version of five time major champion Seve Ballesteros. Hagen bombed his tee shots to all corners of the course, was a less than average iron player, and yet had what was regarded as the finest short game and putting stroke of his time. In fact, it’s a little bit surprising to note that Hagen somehow found a way to win those two U.S. Opens in 1914 and 1919. Even then, National Open set-ups were extremely tight with narrow fairways and high rough. His game was more suited to the wide open courses that hosted the British Open, a major tournament that he won four times. He also won a most amazing five PGA Championships, although way back when, the PGA was contested at match play and Hagen had an innate ability to get into the head of some of his competitors.
His philosophy of how he played the game probably had an important impact upon his demeanor and his ability to pull off that miracle shot when he most needed it. He was quoted as saying that “I fully expect to make seven mistakes each round I play. Therefore, when I hit a bad shot, it’s just one of the seven.” A wise piece of advice to both professionals and amateurs. Of course sometimes his comments were nothing short of head scratchers. One time Hagen said, “It takes six years to make a golfer. Three to learn the game and another three to unlearn all you have learned in the first three years.” If you think you know what that means, let me know. And keep in mind, Hagen learned the game as a caddie, turned pro as a teenager, and was giving lessons to the elite membership at the Country Club of Rochester (NY) as a 16 year old. I’m not sure what it was that he had to unlearn. He was great from the beginning.
Hagen was quoted numerous times for saying “No one remembers who came in second.” He used to taunt his fellow pros at tournaments, asking the obnoxious question, “So who’s going to come in second this week?” At one of his five Western Open wins, Hagen had a downhill 10 foot putt to win the tournament on the 18th hole. Hagen loudly announced to the gallery, “Miss this little putt and the chance to win $1,500? I should say not.” Hagen then went on to drain the putt for the win.
On the final hole of that 1919 National Open at Brae Burn, Hagen had a 12 foot putt to tie Mike Brady who was atop the leader board after 72 holes. Brady had already completed his round. Somehow, Hagen spied Brady in the heart of the gallery surrounding the 18th green. He asked Brady to come out of the crowd and watch his tournament tying putt from the fringe of the green. Brady obliged, Hagen sunk the putt, and beat Brady by one in an 18 hole playoff the next day.
I mentioned earlier that it is estimated that Hagen was the first millionaire in the world of professional sports. When asked about his financial successes, which largely came from exhibition matches, Walter responded by saying, “I never wanted to be a millionaire. I just wanted to live like one.
You couldn’t make a lot of money in professional golf in those days, but promoters used to put together top flight exhibitions which were financially more appealing than what you could make at tournament golf. Oftentimes those exhibitions featured Hagen versus Bobby Jones or Hagen and Gene Sarazen. Hagen explained his popularity and draw when he stated, “Showmanship was needed, and happily I possessed a flair for that too, and I used it.”
Yet Walter Hagen was a lot more than the first great trash talker of the sports world as evidenced by his record and his influence upon the game. In the mid-1960s at a dinner celebrating Hagen, Arnold Palmer was quoted as saying, “If not for you, Walter, this dinner would be downstairs in the pro shop and not upstairs in the ballroom.” Gene Sarazen added, “All the professionals should say a silent thanks to Walter Hagen each time they stretch a check between their fingers. It was Walter Hagen who made professional golf what it is.”
In these trying times I find it appropriate to conclude our rewind of great Walter Hagen quotes with one that is well known and makes more sense than ever today. Walter Hagen said, “You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” While he said it some 100 years ago, it makes a whole lot of sense today.
