GOLF COLLECTIBLES AND MEMORABILIA 22:Ryder Cup items have sold particularly strongly in recent years, Gary Moranreports
IN FIVE years as a professional golfer, Hunter Mahan has won only one tournament and has had to settle for a mere $7.5 million prize money. On the fringe of automatic qualification for the American team last month, he infamously likened the players at the Ryder Cup to slaves.
Mahan had rowed back a bit on his comments before the action started last Friday week, and by the time it was all over he had totally changed his tune.
"It's an incredible, incredible experience," he said.
"I wish every golfer, every player on Tour could experience this because it's just amazing. If I get to play in a couple more of these that would be unbelievable."
And if a week without prize money really spooks him so much, he can sell off some of the truckload of Ryder Cup gear and collectibles that avalanched in his direction the week before last.
If he got his fellow competitors to sign them first, he would trouser more than a reasonable week's wage for his troubles.
Ryder Cup items have sold particularly strongly in recent years and some collectors take a particular interest in the biennial matches.
Tom Steinhardt from Maryland has an outstanding collection across several sectors, including the programmes from all four tournaments that made up Bobby Jones' Grand Slam in 1930.
He got into Ryder Cup collecting just around the time the matches became competitive in the mid-1980s and now has every programme except 1927, '29 and '59. None is known to exist for the inaugural 1927 matches, and Steinhardt doesn't know of anyone who has the '29, although industry reference Gilchrist's Guide lists it at €4,200. There was no formal programme for the '59 matches at Eldorado Country Club. Instead, the programme came as a supplement with Palm Springs Life magazine.
It is easily the rarest of the post-second World War Ryder Cup programmes with a Gilchrist's Guide price of €1,100. It was auctioned in a single lot with five other Ryder programmes as part of the sale of the valuable collection of Charles C Ratigan at PBA Galleries in California last month.
The combined lot sold for €3,400, and, as Steinhardt already had all the other programmes, he passed up on that chance to acquire the '59.
While the Ryder Cup was founded by a seed merchant, it might not have continued after the war but for the intervention of Oregon fruit grower Robert Hudson who funded the B I team's trip to Portland GC for the 1947 matches.
The visitors, including Fred Daly, travelled by boat to New York before being met by Hudson for the three-and-half-day rail journey to the west coast. Hudson's signature, along with those of several players and officials, was on a copy of the '47 programme sold at the same PBA auction in conjunction with a copy of the welcome dinner menu for €1,450.
Mahan may not have been impressed by the idea of all the big dinners, but those menus can be really valuable.
A 1971 victory dinner menu from the estate of the late American non-playing captain Jay Hebert and signed by all 24 players sold for €2,700 in the summer.
Just beneath the signature of Jack Nicklaus, Brian Huggett wrote his name and the message "Watch out in '73": the Americans didn't feel the heat for another decade.
Many remember the conclusion to the 1999 matches at Brookline as ugly, but the menu for the welcome dinner was a beautiful piece of work.
American captain Ben Crenshaw has a fine golf collection and is a member of the Golf Collectors Society. He obtained a colour copy of the 1927 menu and had it used as the basis for the '99 design.
Bonhams sold an unsigned copy in mint condition for €270 at their pre-British Open auction in July. From the estate of Henry Cotton, they also had a copy of a 1929 menu signed by Cotton and the American Al Watrous and it made a whopping €4,250.
Renowned golfing landscape artist Graham Baxter received his usual commission from the European Tour to produce their official print for this year's matches.
He chose to depict the 13th at Valhalla looking back to the clubhouse. It's strictly limited to 1,250 copies and Michael Neary has managed to get two of them, signed by Baxter and Nick Faldo, for his Golfing Memories shop in Bray where he has priced them at €595 each.
Baxter also painted "The Shot", which commemorates Christy O'Connor's celebrated two-iron to the 18th at the Belfry in his 1989 singles match against Fred Couples. Only 500 prints were made and no more than 499 remain thanks to a fire at Neary's shop several years ago.
He has another one, signed by Baxter and O'Connor junior, for sale at €1,400. If that's out of your price range, you can admire number 15 of the 500 on the wall of the Goat Grill in Dublin.
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