USPGA HistoryDuring the meeting, Wanamaker proposed that an annual professional tournament be held and offered to put up $2,500 as part of the prize funds. The inaugural tournament took place at Siwanoy Country Club, Bronxville, New York, and it was a British-born golfer, Jim Barnes who became the first winner of the Wanamaker Trophy. The tournament was a resounding success and, despite the First World War preventing the event taking place again until 1919, the USPGA Championship was born. It has been played every year since its inception, except 1943, when it was cancelled due to World War II. The tournament originally started as a matchplay event and this format clearly suited Walter Hagen, who dominated the tournament in the early years. Television was a major factor that influenced the PGA to go with stroke play format. Due to commercial pressure from the TV Stations and, due to a loss of popularity, the event changed to a strokeplay format in 1958. The first USPGA Strokeplay Championship was won by Dow Finsterwald. The USPGA is the fourth and final Major in the golfing year, held during the month of August. It has now developed into one of the years’ premier sporting events, with one of the strongest, all-professional international fields of the year. The field comprises of 156 professional golfers, with around half that total fall ing into one of the following exemption categories.
The PGA of America also reserves the right to invite additional players not included in the categories above. The 156-player field will be filled, in place order, by those players below 70th place in official money standings from the International through the Buick Open. Past results from previous Championships can be found by viewing the
USPGA Results Page
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