page_title: Walter Hagen
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Walter Hagen / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: New Champion Golf "Pro" of the U. S., Walter Hagen, holding the coveted silver cup emblematic of professional golf championship of the United States for 1921, which be won by a wonderful conquest over the course of the Inwood Country Club, Long Island, when he defeated his old rival, Jim Barnes, the national open champion, in the finals by three up and two to play.
context_page_description: Walter Charles Hagen was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional majors is third behind Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. Hagen is widely considered one of the greatest golfers ever.
  Hagen won the U.S. Open twice, and in 1922 he became the first native-born American to win the British Open, and won the Claret Jug three more times. He also won the PGA Championship a record-tying five times, and the Western Open five times when it had near-major championship status. Hagen totaled 45 PGA wins in his career, and was a six-time Ryder Cup captain. The Masters Tournament, the newest major, was established in 1934, after his prime.
context_section_description: In 2000, Hagen was ranked as the seventh greatest golfer of all time by Golf Digest magazine. Hagen was ranked as the eighth greatest player of all time by Sports Illustrated / Golf Magazine in a major 2010 ranking.
  Major victories:
  U.S. Open: 1914, 1919
  British Open: 1922, 1924, 1928, 1929
  PGA Championship: 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927
  There is some debate among golf historians as to whether Hagen should actually be credited with 16 major championships, second only to Jack Nicklaus and one ahead of Tiger Woods. (However, counting the U.S. Amateur, which is no longer considered a major championship, Woods' three U.S. Amateurs titles gives him a total of 18, two behind Nicklaus's 20.) Hagen captured the Western Open five times (1916, 1921, 1926, 1927, and 1932), at a time when the Western Open was considered one of the premier events on the world golf schedule, second only to the U.S. and British Opens.
  The concept of the "four modern majors" was not precisely initiated until Arnold Palmer's Masters and U.S. Open wins in 1960; Palmer stated his intent at that time of going for a modern Grand Slam by winning the Open Championship and the PGA Championship that same year; this was taken up by the world's golf media, and has gained increasing credence with time. In Hagen's prime, the Masters had not yet been founded, and the Western Open (the championship of the Western Golf Association) was, by today's definition, a "major", insofar as it was one of four elite tournaments in which most of the top golfers in the world could be counted on to participate each year.
  Hagen captained the United States in the first six Ryder Cups, and played on the first five U.S. teams: 1927, 1929, 1931, 1933, and 1935.
  Hagen has been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, in the charter class of 1974.
  Hagen has been portrayed by Bruce McGill in the 2001 movie The Legend of Bagger Vance, and by British actor Jeremy Northam in the 2004 Bobby Jones biopic Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius.
caption: 1921 PGA Champion
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