Nike's PGA Championship Shoes Honor Walter Hagen's Lost Wanamaker Trophy

Scottie Scheffler will wear Nike golf shoes bearing the words "lost" and "found" on their soles during the PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club this week. The design nods to one of golf's strangest tales involving Walter Hagen.

Nike produces special-edition shoes for each major championship, and the PGA models come in a single colorway with the two words split between the soles.

The tribute targets Hagen's third PGA title in 1925 at Olympia Fields, a match-play event. After winning, Hagen gave the oversized Wanamaker Trophy to a cab driver and told him to deliver it to his hotel.

The trophy never arrived. It became the first major championship prize officially lost.

Hagen claimed victories in 1926 and 1927 without mentioning the missing hardware. At the 1928 PGA, when officials asked about it, he replied, "I will win it anyway, so I didn't bring it."

His run ended that year with a quarterfinal loss to Leo Diegel at Baltimore Country Club. Hagen then admitted the trophy had been gone for three years. Officials handed Diegel the Maryland Cup Trophy from the club lobby instead.

The Wanamaker surfaced in October 1930. While rummaging through old trunks in Detroit, Hagen uncovered the long-lost prize. A New York Evening Journal headline on Oct. 6, 1930, captured it: "In Detroit last week. Hagen, while going through some old trunks, unearthed a bulky package. Lo, and behold! It was the P.G.A. trophy which had been lost and was found again."

Scheffler and other Nike athletes will sport the "lost and found" shoes at Aronimink.