Charlotte, NC – Collin Morikawa had no idea how heavy it was the Wanamaker trophy when he tried to raise him in the air after his victory in the PGA 2020 championship in Harding Park TPC.
The result was a close disaster.
While Morikawa grabbed the handles of the large silver jug and began to lift it above his head for a photographic opportunity, the upper part of the sterling silver trophy He left and collapsed to the groundmaking one of the most uncomfortable victory celebrations, if not memorable, in the history of golf.
“They told me that it is heavy; they did not tell me that the lid came out,” Morikawa recalled on Wednesday before the start of this year’s PGA championship in Quail Hollow. “But it is much heavier than you expect. And then they tell you to lift it on your head.”
Six years earlier, Rory Mcilroy had a similar experience after winning his second PGA championship in Valhalla.
When the then president of PGA Tour, Ted Bishop, he approached the Irish of the North to present the trophy for the awards ceremony, the lid came out and Mcilroy alert hooked him in the air with one hand Before reaching the ground, causing a great roar of applause from the spectators.
The Wanamaker trophy, which includes the recorded names of each winner of the PGA championship, measures 29 1/2 inches, 27 inches from mango to mango and weighs 27 pounds, which makes it a somewhat uncomfortable edition, particularly after playing 18 holes.
Mcilroy called the “quite fleshy” trophy.
“It’s good for photos because your biceps usually flex,” Mcilroy said Wednesday with a laugh while extending his arms while pretending to hold an imaginary trophy. “So it makes you look a little stronger than you really are. But it’s great.”
Rich Beem really did not realize how heavy the trophy was after he kept Tiger Woods to win in Hazeltine, saying that there was too many adrenaline pumping his veins.
“I could have heavy 100 pounds,” said Beem, “and I could probably have picked it up with a little me.”
Beem said that what surprised him most was that the silver trophy was not so hot despite baking that afternoon in the sun of August.
Since Beem won almost a quarter of a century ago, an additional base has been added to the trophy after officials ran out of space to record the names of the winners. The name of the champion is traditionally added before the trophy leaves the course, with the five times winners Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen appearing more in it.
The champions can keep the Wanamaker trophy for a year after it is granted, provided they return it for the presentation of the following year.
Sometimes that doesn’t work.
At the end of the 1920s, Hagen was forced to admit to the officials of the tournament that lost the trophy, which was initially created at the time when the tournament began in 1916 by Rodman Wanamaker, son of an athlete and heir of an empire of department store and accredited to help create the Professional Golf Association of America.
The details about how Hagen stays out of place remains incomplete and have become part of the golf tradition.
According to the reports, he told the PGA of America that he left him by taxi while celebrating one of his four consecutive titles between 1924 and 27. He resurfaced a few years later, and now resides at the PGA headquarters of America in Frisco, Texas. What is now used is the replacement that was created shortly after the original has lost.
What the champions do with the Wanamaker trophy is to their own discretion.
“If you fill it with ice and take two bottles of Jack Daniels and a two-liter bottle of Coca-Cola Light and a dozen files, you have an ice cream,” Beem joked. “I’m not saying that is what I did.”
Once the trophy is returned the following year to be presented to the next champion, the players receive a replica, although one that is 10% smaller, to keep forever.
Wanamaker trophy transport is not an easy task.
Unlike the Claret Jug of 5 1/2 much lighter pounds, a silver trophy in the form of a pitcher that comes with a friendly case with travel and the winner of the British Open, the Wanamaker is given annually, the Wanamaker probably is probably not something he wants in the country.
“It’s hard to drag the Wanamaker and say: ‘Hello guys, here they go,” said Morikawa. “The Claret jug is a bit easier to have fun with it.”
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
