MEMORABILIA AND COLLECTIBLES PART 18: Gary Morantells of some of the inquiries he has received and gets some prices for golfing items that haven't seen the light of day for years
ONE OF the original hopes for this column was that it might prompt readers to look in the attic, garage, shed or old shoebox where they might rediscover some old golf items that meant a lot personally and perhaps, just perhaps, turned out to be worth a significant sum of money.
In Lotto terms we have yet to hit the jackpot but it's fair to say we've done more than "match four plus the bonus", as with the help of Michael Neary from the Golfing Memories shop in Bray, Paul Garvey of irishgolfarchive.com and Alistair Smith who really does know more about golf memorabilia than seems reasonable, we have been able to provide dozens or readers with insights into their golfing collectibles, or non-collectibles in some cases.
A retired doctor in the west of Ireland received a Carnoustie scorecard from one of his patients who, in turn, had got it from a priest and it turned out to be no ordinary card.
The priest had been to the 1953 British Open at the Scottish course, where Ben Hogan won on his first and last appearance in the championship.
The card is signed by Hogan as well as several winners from other years, including Bobby Locke, Max Faulkner and Roberto De Vicenzo. Pricing such multi-autographed items is a very inexact science but, especially with the Hogan connection, it would be likely to fetch between €500 and €1,000 with everything legible and in good condition.
Ping putters featured early on in the series and produced many queries but most related to mass-produced models which are of no significant value. One of the better ones arrived by email from Andy Hallam last month. His Kushin model was produced for the British market with Slazenger stamped on the sole and is worth around €250.
Frank Gannon of the well known Co Louth golfing family inquired about two flicker books - small books that showed an animation of a player's swing when the pages were flicked rapidly between thumb and forefinger.
Flicking the pages from back to front would show a second swing. We received an estimate of over €200 for Flicker Productions' Bobby Jones 11A (drive and mashie) but in a combined lot with a Harry Weetman Flick-A-Book drive and 7-iron it sold for barely half that in a recent auction.
Declan Howley emailed about a couple of interesting books, including a first edition (1904) of May Hezlet's Ladies Golf. A copy sold last month for €340, which was at the low end of our expectations but not bad in a weak market for books.
Two of our more fascinating stories concern programmes from the 1969 Ryder Cup at Royal Birkdale.
Oliver McCann now works in the golf travel business but it was as a golf fan and particularly with a view to seeing (and hearing) Lee Trevino that he made the trip across the Irish Sea for the 1969 matches.
In those days it was easy enough for spectators to get close to the players, especially around the putting green, and McCann got his programme signed by all the home team and all of the Americans except Ken Still and Frank Beard.
"I've moved house several times and was always about to throw it in the bin," admits McCann.
"But in the end I'd hang on to it. I was told at a PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando that it could be worth thousands."
Well the guidance of our experts would suggest between €500 and €1,000 but at least McCann has the option to sell or hold his copy which isn't true for Castle professional David Kinsella.
Golf runs in the Kinsella family like water flows down the Amazon and David was a young apprentice when he took the ferry and train over to Birkdale.
Kinsella junior has been a Manchester United fan for most of his life and was awestruck on seeing European Cup winners Denis Law and Bobby Charlton and manager Matt Busby standing at the first tee on a practice day. He approached in some trepidation but all three affably signed his programme.
As the week progressed, he got the signatures of many of the players as well but he never got the chance to complete the set. Kinsella was on good terms with Lee Trevino's caddy Willie Aitchison, having shared a car from Cork to Dublin with him after an RTV Rentals tournament where Aitchison looped for his British boss, Neil Coles.
As "Aitch" clambered from the 17th green to the 18th tee during one of the matches with the crowd jostling right beside him, he slipped and suffered a broken leg. One of the American entourage had to take Trevino's bag as the match went down the 18th but Kinsella hung back out of concern for the caddy.
Health and safety standards were surely more lax in those days as a doctor nearby whipped off his tie and fashioned a makeshift splint by strapping Kinsella's programme to Aitchison's lower leg before the stretcher-bearing St John's Ambulancemen arrived huffing and puffing on the scene.
Kinsella then helped carry the stricken Aitchison back to the clubhouse and went along in the ambulance to two hospitals to make sure the big Scot was in good care.
At this stage the programme was the least of Kinsella's worries and somewhere along the way it disappeared.
As if that wasn't bad enough, the first thing he got when he trekked back to his meeting place for the evening was a ticking off from another member of the travelling party for being late.
Almost 40 years later, he doesn't seem at all rueful about losing a valuable piece of golfing memorabilia. The United signatures, well they're a different matter.
email: collectgolf@gmail.com
