Where do you start with golf?
It’s a game for individuals (though no player is complete without a great caddy), so the focus is on the most collectible golfers.
This apparently placid pastime can raise passions. I’ve known people go red with fury talking about their dislike for it. And, those who love it, often do so with a passion.
There’s also a lot of money in golf.
The list of prize pools at US tournaments next year is a long line of six-figure numbers, topping out with the $25million to be shared among the best performers at the Players Championship in March.
And that can filter down into collectors markets, sometimes via some very opulent trophies and prizes.
It’s a sport with a rich, long history. The Old Course at St Andrew’s dates back to the 18th century.
Players often have long careers and interesting lives outside the sport. Golf is full of characters.
And, it’s built around specialist equipment that is eminently collectible.
If you know a golfer, you’ve probably looked for golfing gifts to feed their all-consuming interests.
It could be that collectibles and memorabilia associated with their favourite player is a good option for you.
It will be certainly be a unique, one-off gift. And one that may even pay off as investment.
Let’s take to the tee to find the 5 most collectible golfers in memorabilia markets.
1 - Tiger Woods
Talking about a “rich life outside the game“ doesn’t really do justice to the scandals that ended up putting Woods on tabloid trial.
I think his golfing skills will outlive his personal transgressions though. When Woods started to hoover up titles there was even talk of changing the rules of the game to accommodate his prowess.
His net worth is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars, and he is the owner of 15 major titles, including 5 US masters. He has won 18 world golf championships and holds records for the longest period as world number 1 and the longest consecutive runs at the top.
This glove is signed by Tiger Woods, the addition of caddy Steve Williams' signature gives it extra rarity.
Woods is still alive and still playing, though no longer at his height. He’s still signing autographs and producing memorabilia (though he's said to dislike the secondary market around his fame). That includes a set of irons with two wedges that made $5.15 million at auction but which Woods says aren't the clubs with which he completed his grand slam of titles.
2 - Arnold Palmer
A wonderfully emblematic image of Arnold Palmer in action.
If Tiger Woods was perceived as breaking something of a racial barrier in golf by becoming the first black superstar of the game, Palmer broke a class celing.
He came from relatively modest stock. His father spent a lot of time on the golf course, but because he worked there as a groundsman and greenskeeper.
Palmer took golf from the countryclub and onto the newly colour television screens of super-affluent 1950s and 60s America. His move to Orlando helped make Florida one of the golf capitals of the world.
He was still playing when I first became aware of the game back in the 1980s, and his six-decade career included 62 PGA Tour titles that take in an extraordinary six-year run of seven major titles.
He is the fifth player on the PGA Tour all-time rankings.
One of his Masters trophies was sold in 2016 for $444,000. Another is in the Smithsonian.
Palmer was followed by a host of fans called Arnie’s Army, so his signature was always in demand. It should come in at around about £1,000 these days, though provenance, condition, and setting are everything.
3 - Jack Nicklaus
This hat ties Nicklaus to the legendary Masters tournament. What a memento of the sport.
The trail that Arnie blazed was marched along by Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear, who became one of the great stars of the modern game and arguably - and golfers love to argue - its greatest ever player.
His stats are extraordinary. He took 73 PGA Tour titles, Nine of the European circuit, and has a total of 117 tournament wins including 18 majors. His Masters wins came in three decades, matching his record in the PGA Championships and US Open. He won our Open three times.
Nicklaus wasn’t a risky or flashy player, but he could drive for miles off the tee and was the canniest and cleverest tactician and planner in the game. His course design career is almost as storied as his playing.
Alongside Palmer and Gary Player (with whom the pair shared management) Nicklaus helped golf become a global entertainment spectacle with big stars.
And that means collectibles.
Jack isn’t a billionaire, but he’s said to be worth around $400,000,000 and he pioneered the golf business. Now, his group of companies include a memorabilia arm that produces signed art and other collectibles.
You can find autographs and signed photographs for hundreds of pounds easily enough. Memorabilia and imagery genuinely associated with his greatest wins will give you the greatest returns.
Like the other players on this list Nicklaus undoubtedly has a huge collection of his own and little pressure to sell it for monetary reasons. If he ever did want to split it up it would be a major event in golf collecting.
4 - Sam Snead
There's no mistaking the trademark hat worn by Slammin' Sammy.
Sam really is number one, with a swing that other greats routinely describe as “the best ever”, “the most natural” or “perfect”.
He’s tied with Tiger at the top of the PGA Tour winners list with 82 titles, and has seven majors to his name, including the first post-war Open (Snead served in the US Navy) at St Andrew’s in 1946. Incredibly he finished second 4 times in the US Open and never took that title home.
Born in West Virginnia, Snead was a big hitter and a voluble and folksy character who hosted his own TV show.
He played on well into old age, and holds several age-related records for tournament wins, cuts and course scores.
Snead’s 1949 Masters trophy was auctioned for around $0.75 million in November last year - more than 5 times the price it achieved just a decade earlier.
Less glittering items are also collectible: autographs should be hundreds of pounds if well presented and on interesting items - Snead was an author and his How To Play Golf book is a popular signed item.
5 - Ben Hogan
Though a quiet man, Ben Hogan's determination won him much admiration.
Hogan was born in Texas in 1912 and was a dominant figure in the game in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. He’s fourth on the all-time titles list and has a full-house of majors.
His life wasn’t easy. His father committed suicide, and Hogan may even have witnessed it. He was a quiet man who threw himself into his sport.
And what a success he made of it.
Caddying led him to the game, and he was pro by the time he was 18, though not successfully. Hogan continued working as a club pro into the 40s. His own difficulties with his swing led to him becoming a major theorist of the game.
World War II air force service and a brush with death in a terrible car crash interrupted but didn’t halt his extraordinary run of success from 1938 to 1959. In that time he racked up 63 pro wins, including 1953’s Triple Crown of three of the four majors - he couldn’t enter the fourth, the US Open, because it clashed with The Open.
Hogan dealt with pain from his accident throughout his career and tried to avoid the longest tournament days. He practised more than his contemporaries and honed his swing to iron out flaws and discover what he called “the secret”. He may have been left handed.
It worked. Hogan holds many records, including two years with 10 PGA tour event wins, the most major wins from the fewest attempts (8 from 11), and many longest streaks that showcase his determination. His post-accident comeback helped win over fans who had never previously warmed to his somewhat withdrawn persona.
Hogan autographs are usually sold for hundreds of pounds if well presented and in good condition.
His 1-iron, featured in a photograph widely regarded as one of the best sports pictures ever taken, would certainly be an extremely valuable artefact, if you can track it down and prove it. A club that may be the one was sold for $200 in 1982 but it’s very hard to be sure.
Buying golf memorabilia now
This is just the tip of the iceberg for golf memorabilia.
So many great names missed out: Gary Player, Gene Sarazen.
Current stars who you can start collecting now, like Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth.
And the nameless players who held pioneering clubs like the 1750 Andrew Dickson-made putter that sold for $181,000 recently.
In fact, I think few sports offer the scope to the collector that golf does.
And, golf fans can really add depth to their enthusiasm on a huge range of budgets.
Buying golf gifts for men?
Collectibles will be one-off and really special.
We’ve got some lovely golf memorabilia in our sports memorabilia store.
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