Walter Hagen, c. 1908-1914. Right, with a friend. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-100346).

Hagen, Walter Charles (21 Dec. 1892-5 Oct. 1969), professional golfer, was born in Rochester, New York, the son of William Hagen, a blacksmith, and Louise Balko. Hagen grew up less than a mile from the Country Club of Rochester, in the Corbett's Glen neighborhood of suburban Brighton. The proximity to a golf course was instrumental to Hagen's early development. He began playing golf at age five; by the age of seven he was caddying for 10 cents an hour. Hagan quit attending school regularly at the age of 12, as he jumped out of a schoolroom window, headed for the golf course.

Though Hagen aspired to be a professional baseball player, he became an assistant golf professional at the Country Club of Rochester in 1907 and thus began a pathbreaking career in professional golf. Hagen entered his first professional tournament in 1912, finishing 11th. His first, and perhaps most important, career breakthrough came in 1914 at America's premier professional golf event, the U.S. Open at Chicago's Midlothian Country Club. Despite suffering from a virulent case of food poisoning on the eve of the tournament, Hagen shot an opening-round 68--the lowest 18-hole score then recorded at a U.S. Open. His winning four-round total of 290 tied the Open record for the lowest score. Following his Open victory, Hagen capitalized on his newfound fame by playing exhibition matches around the country with fellow professionals. Hagen's showmanship and regal air on the course made him a crowd favorite wherever he played, thus attracting large audiences and high exhibition fees.

Hagen's penchant for expensive cars, the finest clothes, the most beautiful women, and all-night parties contributed to his increasing fame and popularity. On 29 January 1917 Hagen married Margaret Johnson of Rochester. The couple had one child before the marriage was dissolved in the spring of 1921, in part because of Hagen's frenetic travel schedule and his fondness for other women.

Shortly after the birth of his only child, Hagen accepted a position as head professional at the elite Oakland Hills Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan. But in 1919, during an age when golf professionals worked strictly at a course for financial survival, Hagen made the precedent-breaking decision to play exhibitions and tournaments full time. Thus Hagen paved the way for young men "to make their living not as golf professionals but as professional golfers" (Wind, p. 90).

Hagen won several more professional tournaments as the decade closed, including the first $1,000 purse at the Panama Exposition and the 1919 U.S. Open. But Hagen's career and reputation reached their peak in the 1920s. Hagen, along with famed amateur Bobby Jones, dominated the major championships. Hagen won his first of four British Open titles in 1922, thus becoming the first American-born professional to win the coveted claret jug (his other titles came in 1924, 1928, and 1929). Hagen also won five Professional Golfers Association (PGA) championships (1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1927).

Hagen's dominance of the PGA championship, then played as matches in which contestants competed head-to-head rather than attempt to compile the lowest 72-hole total, crystallized his reputation as a master of golfing psychology. Hagen would often employ theatrics and gamesmanship to get the better of an opponent. One of his favorite methods was to arrive just minutes before his scheduled start, jogging to the first tee dressed in a wrinkled tuxedo and dancing pumps--evidence of an all-night party for which Hagen was notorious. Unbeknownst to his opponent, whose guard was now down, Hagen had staged the entire event.

Hagen's fondness for match play competition also contributed to formalizing matches between leading European and American golf professionals. Hagen captained the first seven American teams in the biennial matches, which became known commonly as the Ryder Cup (1927, 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935, 1937, and 1939). Perhaps not surprisingly, Hagen's "greatest thrill in golf" occurred in match play competition, a 72-hole contest against the legendary Jones played in 1926. Hagen pocketed $7,600 for his 12 and 11 trouncing (leading by 12 holes with only 11 holes remaining) of the Georgian amateur.

Hagen wed again in the spring of 1924, but the marriage to Edna Strauss did not last, as domestic life simply did not agree with his lifestyle; they divorced after 10 years. He did, however, experience much more success in making an important business decision. Specifically, in 1927, Hagen invested in manufacturing golf clubs bearing his name and design, a move that augmented his wealth and fame long after his playing career ended.

Hagen continued to play competitively well into the 1930s, but with the onset of the Great Depression, and with fees for exhibitions in the United States dwindling, Hagen took his game and appeal abroad. In so doing he became the first prominent American golf ambassador, as he played throughout the South Pacific, the Far East, Africa, and Europe.

Hagen retired from competitive golf in 1940, having won 75 tournaments and having played in more than 2,500 exhibitions. He was also the first golfer to win more than $1 million in prize money. Despite his retirement, Hagen's presence and popularity within golfing circles did not diminish. Professional golfers in particular realized that the game's popularity and the large tournament purses were attributable partly to Hagen's showmanship, his flair for competition, and his visibility around the world. According to his fellow competitor Gene Sarazen, "I think Walter Hagen contributed more to golf than any player today or ever" (quoted in Fimrite, p. 76). For his many contributions to the game, Hagen was inducted as a charter member of the PGA Hall of Fame in 1940, and he was elected to golf's most elite body, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1968. The following year Hagen died at his estate in Traverse City, Michigan.

Though Hagen left no known unpublished personal papers, the Rochester Historical Society, Rochester, N.Y., houses an extensive collection of newspaper and magazine articles about him. The best, and most complete, single-volume account of Hagen's career is his autobiography, The Walter Hagen Story (1956). Other sources chronicling aspects of Hagen's career and personal life include Ron Fimrite, "Sir Walter," Sports Illustrated, 19 June 1989, pp. 74-86; Geoff Russell, "Walter Hagen: The Rochester Years," Golf Digest, June 1989, pp. 129-34; Charles Price, "Sir Walter and the Emperor Jones," Golf Digest, April 1992, pp. 58-63; and Herbert Warren Wind, "The Sporting Scene: The Haig and Some Recent Masters," New Yorker, 18 May 1987, pp. 89-106. An obituary is in the New York Times, 7 Oct. 1969.