2009 PGA Championship, Who will win? 

The 2009 PGA Championship is fast approaching; tickets are being bought as quickly as they were announced.  The PGA Championship Golf tournament is one of the largest sporting events and ticket sellers there is. 

Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska Minnesota will host the 91st PGA Championship tournament on August 10, 2009.  As with every PGA Championship tourney, history is made in one fashion or another.  This will be the second time that Hazeltine host the PGA tourney with the previous time in 2002 when Beem wiped the greens Woods’ walked on with his grand finale ending of four birdies on the final four holes with Beem taking home the Wanamaker Trophy . 

Last year (2008) the Wanamaker Trophy went to Pádraig Harrington, again another history making moment for the PGA, with Harrington being the first native born European winning the PGA Championship in 78 years and the first winner from Ireland.  Harrington took home a healthy $1.35 million dollars.  The Wanamaker Trophy comes not only with the prestige of winning the PGA Championship Tournament but also with the history behind the trophy and the many other professionals that have held it within their hands. 

In 1916, Rodman Wanamaker wanted to form a national organization that would promote professional golfers in a positive upscale light.  This resulted in the formation of the PGA of America, rallied up a professional golf tournament with fronting the purse money for the prize and purchased a 28 inch high by 10 ½ inches in diameter with a arm span handle to handle 27 inches weighing in at 27 pounds.  This was no small trophy, just as Wanamaker wanted it; a big trophy to mark a big event.

Names were etched on the trophy as golf pros would take the win of the PGA Championship tournaments, first Barnes, then Hutchison, Hagen, Sarazen, and the Hagen again from 1924 to 1927.  Hagen’s winning streak came to a halt in 1928 when Diegel took the win and upon requesting the Wanamaker Trophy, it was announced that Hagen had lost it.  Later in 1930, the Wanamaker was located in a firm that made Hagen’s line of golf clubs.  In the Midterm for the search for the original Wanamaker Trophy, a duplicate was made and is now the one that is passed from winners hand to the next.  The original is housed safely on display in Port Saint Lucie Florida at the PGA Historical Center where year after year winner’s names are still engraved onto the original Wanamaker.

The Wanamaker Trophy will be up for grabs again at the 2009 PGA Championship tournament.  Woods, if all goes well with his surgery to his left knee and tibia, will be back for the 2009 PGA Championship game.  Will Wannamaker trophy new home be the home of Tiger yet again? †