Scotty Scheffler’s Unique Golf Shoes at PGA Championship

This week at the PGA Championship, Scotty Scheffler will don some special golf shoes featuring a subtle two-letter message on their soles, hinting at a peculiar chapter in golf history.

Nike has become known for its special edition golf shoes for Grand Slam events. This time, they’ve released three models for the PGA Championship, all in a similar color. One shoe says “lost,” while the other reads “found.” It’s a nod to Walter Hagen, a five-time PGA Championship winner, specifically celebrating his third triumph in 1925.

It’s quite a story—Hagen, after winning a match play event at Olympia Fields, once gave the enormous Wanamaker Trophy to a taxi driver, asking him to deliver it to his hotel. But, instead of arriving at the intended destination, the trophy vanished. So, the prestigious trophy is officially deemed lost.

As legend has it, Hagen never let on that he couldn’t locate the trophy for quite some time. When asked about it at the 1928 PGA Championship, he confidently claimed he hadn’t brought it because he was sure he’d win again. However, that was the year his luck ran out, and he was bested in the quarterfinals.

Without the Wanamaker to surrender to his opponent, officials had no choice but to give Leo Diegel the Maryland Cup trophy, which was conveniently available at the club’s lobby. It’s amusing, isn’t it, how things unfold?

In an unexpected twist, Hagen later discovered the trophy in an old trunk in 1930, something everyone thought was lost forever. A newspaper at the time even exclaimed about the surprising find as if it were some miraculous event.

This week, as Scheffler and other Nike athletes sport their “lost and found” shoes around Aronimink Golf Club, it’s a reminder of the quirky and unforgettable stories that make sports so rich with history.