Flamboyant, extrovert and an enjoyer of the good things in life, America’s Walter Hagen twice won The Open Championship at Royal St George’s in the Twenties

It is hard to underestimate the impact Walter Hagen had on the game of golf in the decade or so following the First World War. Between 1919 and 1929 he won five US PGA titles, four Open Championships and one US Open (an event he also won in 1914). Unfortunately for him the US Masters arrived in 1934 ­– after his powers had begun to wane.

More than that, though, Hagen was the first American-born player to win The Open and, in so doing, opened the door for a transatlantic dominance of the Championship that lasted well into the 1930s, when the likes of Henry Cotton, Alf Perry and Reg Whitcombe gave the home fans more to cheer about.

Early days

A flamboyant, extrovert character, Hagen was also a fighter by nature. Born in Rochester, New York in 1892 and the son of a railway worker, he began his career as a boy caddie at the Rochester Country Club. A natural athlete, he also attracted the interest of the Philapelphia Phillies baseball team, but reputedly turned down the approach because he preferred the self-reliance of golf over the interdependencies of a team sport.

He turned professional aged 19 in 1912, finishing fourth at the US Open the following year before winning the championship in 1914. Had the First World War not intervened he would surely have had added further to his Major total, but he had to be content with a second US Open crown in 1919 prior to arriving at Royal Cinque Ports for The Open Championship of 1920.

He finished in a relatively lowly tie for 53^rd place, but it was his actions away (although not very far away) from the course that most caught the attention. Denied entry to the clubhouse as a professional (its precincts were reserved for amateurs) Hagen made use of a Daimler car, parked adjacent, to change into his golf shoes and take the occasional glass of refreshment.

Honorary man of Kent

He was back in Kent for The Open at Royal St George’s in 1922. Tucked in behind the leaders in the first round, Hagen shot a second-round 73 to go two shots clear.

“As a patriotic Briton” opined the legendary golf correspondent Bernard Darwin, “I don’t like the look of him.” He was right to be wary. In a final round that was windswept and interspersed with bursts of heavy rain, the American’s long game was impressive and he compounded it with a trademark ability to save par successfully on the greens.

He ended up winning by one shot from George Duncan of Scotland, and England’s Jim Barnes, with that hero of the Edwardian era, JH Taylor, back in fifth; the Great Triumvirate legend being by then 51 years old.

Hagen won The Open again at Hoylake in 1924, before returning to Royal St George’s in 1928, crossing the Atlantic on the luxury liner Aquitania in the company of Gene Sarazen. Part of the preamble for the Championship that year involved Hagen playing a 72-hole challenge match against British golfer Archie Compston at Moor Park. Hagen, supposedly struggling with a brute of a hangover, was hammered 18 and 17.

Victory against the form book

Following the drubbing Hagen warmly congratulated the victor prior to being whisked away in a Rolls-Royce. He had arrived short of match practice after spending some time in Hollywood working on a film and spent the next week working assiduously on his game in preparation The Open.

Initial rounds of 75 and 73 at Royal St George’s put him three shots behind the leader, Argentina’s Jose Jurado. Hagen then produced two rounds of 72 to hold off the challenges of Sarazen and Compston by two and three shots respectively, his final score of 292 an eight-stroke improvement on his effort six years previously.

Afterwards Hagen strolled over to the press tent and confessed that throughout the championship he “was never master at any one time of any one shot in my bag”.

He added: “I don’t think anyone in either country realised how little golf I have played before coming over here. I won simply by trying to avoid trouble and, of course, I like the course having won the last time we were here… I am really coming back as long as I can get my passport.”

The great crowd-pleaser

Recalling, 60 years later, what it was about Hagen that thrilled the crowds, Sarazen said: “He was an attractive player to watch. He was never monotonous, as Vardon and even Jones sometimes could be… Walter was a great scrambler. He was always exciting.”

Hagen received the Claret Jug that year from the Prince of Wales (the club captain and the future King Edward VIII) with whom he would forge a firm friendship that would occasionally wobble the strict social foundations of 1920s Britain.

In an interview with the New York Times in 1977 Sarazen recalled one such moment. “Walter and I were playing with the Prince at Royal St. George’s. After the ninth hole the Prince asked us if we’d like a libation in the clubhouse.

“At the doorway somebody, maybe the headwaiter, whispered something to him about professionals not being admitted to the clubhouse. The Prince raised his voice and said, ‘You stop this nonsense or I’ll take the Royal out of Royal St. George’s!’ We went in for the drink.” Hagen, you can be sure, would have relished that episode. After all, this is a man who once reflected: “What are titles? It’s the game that counts and the fun you get out of it. And I got my share of the fun in all parts of the world.”

This article first appeared in the 2021 edition of Champion Golfer