During the golden age of sport in the 1920s Walter Hagen was to golf what Babe Ruth was to baseball. He was the first professional golfer to make his living from playing the game rather than teaching it. He won eleven majors – a record surpassed only by Nicklaus. He was influential in founding the Ryder Cup, and was the first golfer to top $1 million in career earnings – euivalent to a massive $40 million today. But where Ben Hogan was impassive, austere, reticent, seen as something of a golf-machine, Hagen was a larger-than-life figure: energetic, witty, a man who travelled by limousine, loved to party – and sent a second limo just to transport his clothes, which were of course the finest.