by Michael Rausch

Created on: July 23, 2008   Last Updated: July 29, 2008

WALTER HAGEN: THE GODFATHER OF PROFESSIONAL GOLF

It was the 1920s. Golf professionals were not treated with the same respect accorded the millionaire college boys of today. No luxurious locker rooms. No access to spacious clubhouses. No sense of equality from the very people who admired and envied their skill and expertise with the golf club, who rather treated them like servants and not the esteemed professionals we laud today. Instead, like second-class citizens, they had to enter locker rooms (not those occupied by the membership) through a back door. The only time they were allowed entry into the clubhouse was if they won the tournament and were invited in to receive their winner's check. In all other respects, professional golfers were deemed unworthy of the memberships' time and effort. That all changed with the arrival on the professional golfing scene of one little known pro from Rochester, New York, named Walter Hagen.

Born the son of a blacksmith, he once admitted that he never wanted to be a millionaire, just to "live like one." Walter Hagen eventually did both, becoming golf's first great showman. Hagen was a star of the first magnitude who commanded huge appearance fees for playing exhibition matches. He spent the money lavishly and conspicuously. In a pre-jet travel sports era, he toured the country in a caravan of cars, carrying with him suitcases of cash. He threw champagne victory parties and dressed handsomely. As a showman, he was unparalleled. In the 1924 British Open, he needed to sink a 6-foot putt to win. Hagen walked up to the ball, not even bothering to line it up, tapped the ball towards the hole, immediately turned his back on the putt, tossing his putter to his caddy who caught it just as the ball dropped into the hole!

But most of all he helped bring professionals out of the shadow by refusing to accept second-class treatment. He embarrassed the membership at a toney British golf club hosting the 1920 British Open by parking outside the clubhouse in his limousine and changing his clothes in the car. That same year, Hagen and a playing colleague, George Duncan, threatened to boycott the French Open unless the professional golfers were allowed into the locker room. The hosts acquiesced, knowing they needed golfing stars like Hagen and Duncan to draw galleries for the tournament.

"Sir Walter" or "the Haig" as he was affectionately known didn't bow down to the prejudices of the upper classes towards pro golfers. In fact, his demeanor,

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