The final major of the 2011 PGA Championship season begins Thursday in Atlanta.
Each summer, one of the finest golf clubs in the United States hosts some of the world’s strongest golf professionals as they compete for the Wanamaker Trophy.
Launched in 1916, the PGA Championship soon became one of the biggest events in the sports world. The tournament has hosted 71 golf courses in 25 American states. Since 1994, the PGA Championship has attracted the largest number of players in the top 100 in the world and has consistently boasted the strongest lineup in the world. The 2002 PGA Championship, for example, held at the Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota, set the all-time record for the most highly ranked participants with 98 of the Top 100 golfers.
The idea for the PGA Championship was born in the mind of store owner Rodman Wanamaker, who felt that an association of professional golfers could have limitless marketing opportunities. Wanamaker invited several prominent players and other influential members of the golf industry to a luncheon held at the Taplow Club in New York City on January 17, 1916. The meeting of a group of 35, including the legendary Walter Hagen, resulted in the founding of the American Professional Golf Association, The PGA of America.
During the meeting, Wanamaker hinted that the formed organization should have its own traditional professional tournament and offered to invest $2,500 and various trophies and medals into a future prize fund. He felt the tournament should follow the same pattern as the British News of the World Tournament – played in Great Britain from 1903 to 1979 as a match play tournament, while the British Open and U.S. Open (still one of the four most prestigious tournaments) played 72 holes to decide the winner, or Stroke Play as they are today at most professional tournaments.
Wanamaker’s proposal, however, was accepted and seven months later the first ever PGA Championship was held at Siwanoy Country Club in Bronxville, New York. British-born Jim Barnes and Jock Hutchinson of famed Scottish St. Andrews met in the final round. The former won 1-0.
In 1958, the format of the competition was changed – now golfers determine the strongest in the stroke play, or the game on the score of strokes. The organizers of the PGA Championship were, as it often happens, forced by the interests of television – to attract a larger audience it was advantageous to have more groups of well-known golfers and contenders on the field at the climax of the competition.
Until the 1960s, the tournament was usually held in July, the week after the British Open Championship, making it nearly impossible for athletes to participate in both majors. In 1965, the PGA moved its name to August, and since 1969 it has had its permanent place on the calendar – in the middle of the last summer month, four weeks after the Open Championship. The only exception was 1971 – then it was held in Florida in February and for the first and last time in its history, it was not the final, but the opening major of the season.
The PGA Championship is played mostly in the eastern United States – only ten times in its history has the tournament moved west. The 2011 season welcomes the world’s best golfers to the redesigned Highlands course at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Georgia, 23 miles north of Atlanta.
