Back Competing and Fully Healthy

The most important reason is that Woods is back competing and is fully healthy once again. Woods struggled for much of 2011 due to a severe leg injury along with the recurring saga involving his past infidelities. Many analysts within the sport were even skeptical that he could come back competing in top form. It is because of this off-year that his prices have dipped somewhat, providing a great opportunity for collectors.

However, Tiger has shown since the end of 2011 that he is now fully healthy and has put everything in the past. Starting with the Australian Open near the end of last year, Woods has been continuously improving his golf game, and won the 2011 Chevron Challenge in late November. In his first event of 2012, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Tiger nearly won the event, finishing in third place. The fact that he is back competing at a high level and is fully healthy should be a good sign for collectors who want to take advantage of the lower prices being offered before they go back up.

The 18 Major Mark

The number 18 holds a special significance within the realm of professional golf, as it is Jack Nicklaus’ major record. It is considered by many as the greatest accomplishment in golf, and anyone who can top it will most likely be considered as one of, if not the, greatest golfers of all time. Tiger currently has 14 majors, and needs only 5 more to break his record. What is great about the game of golf as opposed to other sports is that golfers can play competitively well into their 40’s and 50’s, and at 36 Woods still has well over a decade to try to beat Nicklaus’ record. If and when he does break the record, one should expect prices to jump, providing another reason why it is a good time for collectors to start buying Tiger Woods memorabilia once again. Click to here check autograph prices on eBay now and here to see his best rookie cards up for bid.

Bobby Jones’ golf medals and Walter Hagen’s 1925 PGA Championship were among many legendary collectibles at Heritage’s Vintage Sports Signature Auction on November 11^th this year. A stunning collection of rare and historic golf memorabilia, much of if hailing from the Philadelphia Private Golf Collection, garnered high bids along with other memorabilia, totaling $5.3 million.

The auction featured a quartet of early Bobby Jones amateur medals including his 1919 Southern Golf Association Open Runner-Up Silver Medal, one of the earliest pieces of Jones memorabilia ever made available to the public, and Walter Hagen’s 1925 PGA Championship Medal.

“This is the finest selection of treasures from golf Hall Of Famers ever offered to the public,” said Mike Gutierrez of Heritage. “It’s especially heavy with pieces connected to the great Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, probably the best loved players of the early 20^th Century.”

The four Bobby Jones Amateur Golf Medals in the auction, all of which originate from his estate, include the above-mentioned 1919 Southern Golf Association Open Runner-Up Silver Medal, which was won from a tournament the 17 year-old Jones finished second in by a single stroke to professional Jim Barnes, a PGA and U.S. Open Champion. The other three consist of Bobby Jones’s 1920 Western Golf Association Amateur Medal, reading “1920 Semi-Finalist Won by Robert T. Jones Jr.,” his 1921 Western Golf Association Open Silver Fourth Place Medal, reading “1921 Fourth Place Won by Robert T. Jones, Jr.” and his 1922 Southern Golf Association Team Amateur Medal, reading “Member of Winning Team, Amateur Championship Event, June 1922, Won by Robert T. Jones Jr.”

Bobby Jones’ four early winner’s medals for the event, each surpassed a price realized of $20,000, including a $33,460 price realized for Jones’ 1920 Western Golf Association Amateur Medal.

The auction’s top Walter Hagen lot, his 1925 PGA Championship Gold Medal, (one of the 11 majors he won in his storied career) sold for an astounding $62,738 and came with a story that is worthy of the great champion’s reputation.

Other Hagen treasures in the auction included his 1916 Shawnee Open Winner’s Gold Medal, 1916 Metropolitan Open Championship Gold Medal, 1920 Metropolitan Championship Gold Medal and Hagen’s 1929 British Open Championship winning and Ryder Cup used golf bag, one of the most extraordinary Golden Age golfing artifacts to ever surface.

One of the auction’s most extraordinary and rarest collectibles was a circa 1790 massive Bunker Iron, which sold for $15,535. It’s very existence was a testament to the enduring quality of the club’s craftsmanship and the extraordinary history of the game of golf.

“Because clubs like this one were specially made by a blacksmith, they were quite expensive and few were made in the earliest days of golf,” said Gutierrez. “For this reason very few remain today, with approximately 70-75 in existence today dating prior to 1830, the majority of which are primarily owned by old Scottish or British golfing clubs, or else reside in golf museums, making this an incredible opportunity for a smart collector.”

Other notable items in the auction were a 1910s-20s Francis Ouimet Tournament Used Putter, Bobby Locke’s 1952 British Open Gold Championship Medal and an array of great material ranging from memorabilia belonging to Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor, along with gold medals from Paul Runyon, Jess Sweetser, Bobby Jones’ personal photograph album from his estate, rare 19th century golf balls and extremely collectible golf porcelains and sterling silver awards.

The U.S. Hickory Open, which is run by the Society of Hickory Golfers, will be held on the resort’s historic Donald Ross course. Golfers will be transported back in time to a day when the game was first brought to America in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s including the era when the Donald Ross course was created at French Lick Resort in 1917.

Click here to see hickory golf items on eBay.

Licensed by the PGA TOUR and the World Golf Hall of Fame, this unique series of bronze art will be produced from a casting of the actual hand of one of golf’s legendary figures. Each piece will be made in the United States in museum-quality art bronze employing the “lost wax” process — used by artists for more than 2,000 years to hand-craft high-quality bronze art pieces. The casting will be presented on a base of black granite to complete the truly exquisite work of fine art.

A new edition featuring a Hall of Fame member will be introduced periodically, and a casting of each of the legends will be placed on permanent display in the World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum in St. Augustine, Fla. Only 1,500 pieces of this first edition in the series of collectibles will be cast.

The castings of the Jack Nicklaus edition and each future edition will be sequentially numbered with the year of issue and signature of the legend engraved into the bronze sculpture itself. A Certificate of Authenticity, signed by Kimmich, with the name of the original purchaser and the raised corporate seal of JHK and Company, will accompany each piece. Patrons of Hand of a Legend will be notified each year in advance of the public offering of each new edition, to provide them the opportunity to reserve the same edition number each year — completing the list of items of authenticity necessary to make the Hand of a Legend series a truly compelling offering for collectors of golf memorabilia.

“This is such a unique piece of golf history and to be able to create a fine art piece such as this while supporting the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation and the World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum is particularly gratifying,” Kimmich said.

Patrons acquiring this unique art piece/golf collectible recognizing Nicklaus will also be helping two very worthy institutions — the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation, which is dedicated to supporting the health, safety and well-being of children, and the World Golf Hall of Fame, which preserves the history and legacies of golf’s greats.

“Jack and his team have done a beautiful job with this piece,” Nicklaus said. “The fine details and craftsmanship are outstanding, and it’s very obvious that they have poured a great deal of time and themselves into this project. I am honored and humbled that the artist and the World Golf Hall of Fame chose me to launch this series. I am even more honored that they have dedicated proceeds to the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation. It’s ironic that the true hand in this project is the helping hand they are providing young boys and girls, as well as their families, who are in need of pediatric health-care services.”

“This is a unique product that we are honored to feature in the World Golf Hall of Fame,” said Jack Peter, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the World Golf Hall of Fame. “This piece of art will enhance the experience for our guests in the Museum, as well as continue our mission of celebrating the legacies of the game’s greatest players.”

Hand of a Legend castings will be announced as available on a first-come, first-served basis, and the opportunity to own this “piece of history” is truly limited by the small number of castings to be made. The pieces are now available for ordering at $2,035 each, including shipping within the continental U.S.  Go to www.JHKandCompany.com to learn more about purchasing Hand of a Legend.

Bobby Jones will forever be linked with America’s most famous golf course – Augusta National, home of the Masters tournament. But unlike other golfers, Jones isn’t famous for his actual play the course. Jones link to Augusta comes in the fact that he helped to create it.

When Jones retired at a young age from the game of golf in 1930, he left the game on top winning all of that season’s major championships. But the game never really left him and after Jones retired, he long desired to design a professional golf course. Jones was born in Atlanta, Georgia and retired before the age of 30. After moving back to his home state of Georgia, he bought some available land and co-designed the now famous course, which opened for play in 1933. Jones also served as a co-founder of the Masters tournament, which began the following year. In the beginning, it was first named the Augusta National Invitational.

Jones himself came out of his own retirement from golf and ended up participating in the tournament every year that it was held up until 1948 when his health eventually forced him to decline participation. He never had the type of success that many of his fans had hoped for, though.

After winning all four of golf’s major tournaments in 1930 (the United States Open, the British Open, the United States Amateur Tournament and the British Amateur Tournament), it was hoped that he could compete for a Masters tournament win. Jones never really even came close to fulfilling that and his best finish came in the first year the tournament was held when he finished in a tie for 13^th place. Jones, in declining health, would never again finish in the tournament’s top 15 and have only one other finish in the top 20.

Jones’ amazing legacy lives on to this day in Augusta. Following his death in 1971 at the age of 69, he was memorialized in Augusta at the Golf Gardens. The Bobby Jones Expressway in the area is also named for him.

Quick, what’s the first thing you think of when you hear the words ‘golf wallpaper?’ In this computer age, you probably are thinking of electronic wallpaper, as in the kind you use for a laptop or desktop computer background. But there is indeed golf wallpaper available for a special room in your house.

You may not be ready to wallpaper an entire room in your favorite golf theme, so if you want to start out slowly, a border might be the way to go. The border, which outlines an edge around the walls, doesn’t dominate the room as wallpaper might. It also allows you to paint the walls any color you want while maintaining a subtle golf theme throughout the room.

But if you’re ready to take that next step and wallpaper an entire room, you’ll find (maybe surprisingly) that several different colors and styles exist.

If you’re decorating an office, a quieter theme may be preferred. You can select a wallpaper that has very neutral colors such as a tan or pale green. You also might want something with smaller images – balls, tees, even clubs could work. These types of colors and themes will work in an office much better than a dominant green or a paper with large images might.

Decorating a kids’ bedroom? Here’s where you might want to take the opposite approach. Brighter colors will work in this instance and you can even use something with larger or cartoon type images.

Maybe you’re decorating a game room. Here, you pretty much have free reign on what to use and it really depends on the type of room. If you have a room with subtle decorations, then the office type of wallpaper as discussed above might be a good option. If it’s a true game room in every sense of the word, there’s nothing wrong with using the brighter colors and maybe more of a casual style of paper.

There are also other options available no matter what room you plan to decorate. Maybe you want a golf themed room, but don’t want a repeating pattern. A wall mural might be the perfect fit. You can purchase these in large blocks and a single image can cover an entire wall. This gives you a variety of options. A mural gives you a full-size decoration while giving you other blank walls to work with. You can use those walls to hang photographs, display items in cases or on wall shelves, or even simply paint them.

Whatever the use, whatever the room, there are plenty of viable wallpaper options for the typical golf fan. Click here to see what’s available on eBay.

Availability of Various Quantities

You can pretty much have your pick of tickets on eBay. There are generally several listings for various quantities of tickets and some sellers with large quantities will even sell tickets to you on a per person basis. This is especially convenient if you are looking for an odd number of tickets such as three or five. Many sellers will only auction tickets by the pair, but you can generally find some dealers that will offer an odd number.

Availability of Days

Because the Masters spans for several days, it might not be feasible to attend the entire tournament. Many guests may attend only a day or two and eBay again makes it convenient to buy tickets for specific days. With sellers offering a wide variety of tickets on different days, it’s easy to find the best option.

In addition, tickets are sold for practice days or for actual tournament days. The tickets for the tournament are in greater demand and thus, more expensive. Sellers on eBay offer tickets to both the practice session and the regular tournament. So even if it is too costly to attend the competitive rounds at Augusta National, you can still view your favorite golfers up close during practice play.

Price options

With hundreds of listings generally available at any given time, you can find tickets in a wide variety of price ranges. eBay also has a search system making it extremely convenient to use. A user can sort tickets by price going from lowest to highest or vice versa. Another nice feature about eBay is that a prospective buyer can search for tickets within a specific price range. So it’s easy to find all of the available listings within the amount of money you want to spend.

Reputation

Because Masters tickets are expensive, the most important part of any purchase is buying from a reputable source. Potential buyers can view the feedback ratings of any seller from whom he or she is considering buying. Feedback ratings provide good information about a seller’s past history and buyers may want to avoid purchasing from sellers that have a history of bad transactions. Additionally, eBay takes steps to block certain sellers that have not provided good service to past buyers.

One of the best ways to find a deal on eBay is to wait on auctions. You can wait until the very end to place a bid as sometimes bidding early triggers a lot of interest and a lot of early bids. Another strategy to take is to contact sellers of items that do not sell. Many times a seller will relist an item if you express interest, and sometimes at a lower rate. A third way to find the best deal is to search for ‘Buy Now’ listings. Many of these listings may not only offer a fixed price, but some will have a ‘Best Offer’ option, where you can name your price.

eBay can be an easy and convenient way to purchase tickets to golf’s biggest event. You can shop for Masters tickets on eBay by clicking here to shop around.

Programs – Programs are one of the easiest things to collect from any event and the Masters is no exception. Newer ones are fairly inexpensive and a program is a good way to research the players in the tournament in a given year. Older programs, of course, can sell for significantly more money.

Masters Badges – Like programs, ticket stubs to the event are another great way to remember you were there. Masters badges, however, are very hard to find and expensive.  Limited in number, obviously, anyone accumulating a large collection has something of value.

Tournament-Used Items – As with other tournaments, any kind of event-used items are desired by fans. Many golfers may give away items such as balls, gloves, or hats used from the tournament at the end of the weekend, tossing them into the gallery or giving them away to fans after their final hole.

Photographs – Photographs are popular collectibles for any big-time event and the Masters is no exception. Some fans prefer to collect photos of the course, while others prefer action shots of the golfers. These obviously look great when framed or matted. And if you’re looking for autographs at the event, photos are perhaps the best item to have as you can store more than 100 in a standard three-ring binder with plastic sleeves. In either event, whether you’re collecting pictures of the players or the course, if you’re fortunate enough to attend a Masters Tournament, be sure to take plenty of your own photographs. The official site of the Masters sells photographs at a premium – approximately $35.00 for an 8X10 size.

Prints and Posters – Prints and posters of the famous Augusta course are also available from the Masters’ official website (www.masters.com). Unlike photos, these cannot be stored and made easy for viewing. They are more expensive and need to be framed to be truly appreciated, but when displayed properly, they are generally much nicer than a photograph.

Novelty Items – All kinds of Masters memorabilia is available either at the tournament or through other websites. Anything from pens, pennants, books, pins, hats, shirts, patches, yearbooks, and more can be purchased as well.   Check our store pages at left to find Masters items for sale or auction.

There are two main types of hickory golf – pre-1900 and pre-1935. Pre-1900 hickory golf involves using an older style gutta-percha golf ball that doesn’t travel as far as today’s ball, and generally clubs that were made before 1900.

The Pre-1935 golf version offers  a few less restrictions as modern balls are allowed to be used. However, clubs used must be made before 1935. In both cases, players can also use authorized reproductions.

Hickory clubs are an older style of golf club that have a metal face, but a shaft made of hickory wood. Hickory clubs in good condition can be just as costly as new clubs today, costing several hundred dollars per club. Companies sell new replica sets for thousands of dollars, attesting to the game’s popularity.

Unlike today’s clubs, which generally consist of a driver, irons, putter, and maybe hybrid or fairway clubs, hickory golf clubs have far different names.  Hickorygolf.com records more than 25 different types of hickory clubs that can be used predating 1935.

Here are some of the main ones:

Driver – The driver, like today’s clubs, is the biggest club in a hickory set. These are angled a bit differently than today’s drivers, though, offering a bit more trajectory.

Brassie – This was an all-purpose club of sorts. It could be used to drive off a tee or could be played as a fairway wood, hitting balls from the fairway.

Spoon – This club resembles a three or five wood and has a higher loft than the driver or brassie.

Cleek – There are two types of cleeks available – a wooden cleek or a standard cleek, which has an iron head. This club was found somewhat difficult to use and isn’t generally used nearly as much as some of the others.

Bulldog – The bulldog is similar to a fairway wood, good for a trouble shot when your ball lands off the fairway.

Low Numbered Irons – Irons one through four can also be part of a hickory set. Extreme low numbered clubs such as the 1- or 2-iron club didn’t offer as great a loft and while they can hit the ball farther, are harder to hit.

Mashie – This was one of the most used iron clubs in a hickory golf bag. This club can be used for long or short distances and there are also several different types of mashies including a spade mashie (larger oversized head), Benny (moderate sized head), a mongrel mashie (close to a mid-sized iron), a mashie iron, a driving mashie (used off the tee), or a mashie niblick (great for pitching).

Niblick – This is the club providing with the greatest deal of loft. Not giving a lot of distance, it can be compared to the pitching wedge or sand wedge.

Putter – Same purpose, though a slightly different style than today’s modern club.

Hickory golf is kind of like vintage baseball.  It’s an opportunity to go back in time to see how the game was played decades ago in an effort to have fun and understand a little more about the history of sports.  You can find a lot of hickory golf clubs and equipment via this link to eBay.

There are several types of golf balls that were around long before the standard ball we use today. Collectors can look for any number of antique golf balls such as the following:

Wooden Balls – The very first golf balls were, like the clubs players used, made of wood. Not much information is known about these balls, but there are records of golfers using them. While there are written records of these balls being used, there haven’t been many, if any, ever recovered. It’s hard to imagine getting much distance with a wooden ball hit by a wooden club, so it’s easy to see why these balls didn’t last too long. Collecting this type of ball is virtually impossible.

Feather Balls – In the 1600s, a new type of ball was introduced – the feather ball. This ball, as you can imagine, was a lot closer to the type of ball used today. This ball had a leather exterior with feathers packed inside of it. When stuffed into the ball, the feathers were wet, and when they dried, the ball became hard. These balls were produced by a variety of manufacturers including. While examples of feather balls exist, most of the ones recovered have been from later years. Generally the oldest type of ball collected, these can sell for thousands of dollars at auctions.

Gutty Balls – It took about 200 more years to pass by until the next ball was introduced. This ball was made from rubbery-type sap from a tropical tree. The sap, when warmed, could be formed into a sphere, forming the golf ball. These balls had a pattern on them like today’s do, but the dimples were facing outward instead of going into the ball. These balls are far easier to find and because there were several different types of these balls, the price of one can greatly vary. Still these can be found from under $100.00 to several hundred dollars.

Rubber Core or Mesh Balls – The Gutty also played a role in the next ball being introduced, the rubber core ball. These balls were developed by Coburn Haskell and had a hard rubber wrapped inside of a gutty ball. With the hard rubber in the middle, balls started flying and gave golfers a greater distance. In the early 1900s, manufacturers began making these balls with the famous dimple pattern that we see today. Many mesh balls can be found for under $100.00, while spectacular examples or those made by certain manufacturers can sell for more than that.

Two Piece Ball – Finally, in 1972, we saw the golf ball that we use today, the two piece ball. This ball, as implied by its name, is made of two distinct pieces – the dimple-patterned exterior and the hard rubber inside.

When it comes to collecting these types of balls, standard rules generally apply – the older, the more expensive.  Where can you find them?  Actually every day eBay has thousands of antique balls, clubs and other items up for bid, ranging in price from a dollar or two to tens of thousands.  That’s one of the best things about collecting antique golf balls and other items:  there are entry points for collectors of every budget.