WARMLY INSCRIBED AT LENGTH BY WALTER HAGEN

HAGEN, Walter. The Walter Hagen Story, by The Haig, Himself. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956. Octavo, original half blue cloth, original dust jacket. $2200.

First edition of the golfing legend's autobiography, featuring 24 pages of photographs, inscribed and signed by him in the year of publication, "To 'Dick' Payne, 'Bob' says that you may beat me playing golf, but I still can take care of him in the dice game. Perhaps I can tame you too on your next visit. Golfingly, Walter Hagen, 1956."

"During an age when golf professionals worked strictly at a course for financial survival, Hagen made the precedent-breaking decision to play exhibitions and tournaments full time. Thus Hagen paved the way for young men to make their living not as golf professionals but as professional golfers" (ANB). The first golfer to win over $1 million in prize money, Hagen won five PGA titles (four in a row) and four British Opens. At a banquet in Hagen's honor, Arnold Palmer observed that "tonight [this celebration] would have been downstairs in the pro shop and not in the grand ballroom, if it hadn't been for Walter Hagen." Donovan & Murdoch 19900.

Book with some rubbing and discoloration to boards, dust jacket with small chip to upper corner of front panel. An extremely good inscribed copy.