Autograph book a testament to halcyon days at Woodbrook

MEMORABILIA AND COLLECTIBLES PART 16:DON'T ASK how but a bit of web surfing yesterday brought this column to a transcript of a Finance Committee debate in the Dáil in March 1962. How little things change. Deputies Childers, Donegan and Cosgrave engaged on matters including finance for Cork airport, subsidies for Aer Lingus and support for golf tournaments by Bord Fáilte.

"Among the most successful tourist attractions in recent years," said Mr Cosgrave "have been the events sponsored by individual organisations, either by the combined efforts of groups or the efforts of single bodies, such as the Hospitals Trust, in promoting the international golf competition at Woodbrook.

"The success of these events, the fact that they are run in a most efficient way, the quality of the course as well as the quality of the reception and treatment afforded to those who compete in them and the visitors who come to watch them, have all reflected credit on the promoters.

"They will undoubtedly help to attract visitors here, only some of whom might come on holiday but who come because of their direct interest or participation in the particular event."

Only last weekend we read similar sentiments from the present Minister for Arts, Sport Tourism Martin Cullen in the programme for the AIB Ladies Irish Open and the reference to the Hospitals Trust tournament also struck a chord thanks to a recent e-mail from John Barrett.

Back in the 1950s, Barrett's father Jack was a scratch player at Woodbrook and the teenager used to help as a steward at the annual Hospitals Trust tournament which was a forerunner of the Carroll's International and then Irish Open.

Barrett junior recently discovered his autograph book from the 1959 event which included the signatures of over 40 competitors. Among them were three British Open Champions in Fred Daly, Gary Player and Peter Thompson and Barrett has since got Pádraig Harrington to add his signature to the page.

Impressive though that quartet is, the book isn't particularly valuable according to Paul Garvey of irishgolfarchive.com - www.irishgolfarchive.com. Typically such books are worth less than the sum of their parts (ie the individual signatures) and with the Hospitals Trust event of little interest to collectors outside Ireland it might only make €100.

Of more international interest is Barrett's programme from the 1960 Canada Cup at Portmarnock. Consisting of 180 A4 pages, it contains a page-per-country series of photographs and pen-pictures of the 60 competitors from 30 nations. Barrett got the signatures of 52 of them including three more Open champions in Peter Thomson, Roberto De Vicenzo and Arnold Palmer as well as Christy O'Connor.

"Unfortunately," wrote Barrett, "Player, (Bobby) Locke and (Sam) Snead were a little grumpy that weekend and evaded me."

Garvey, who leaves few stones unturned when assessing our readers' e-mails, reckons Barrett must have been looking for the signatures on the final day as South Africa (Locke and Player) collapsed miserably and Snead had a poor back nine, though the Americans won the title by eight shots. The programme has more international appeal than that from the Hospitals Trust tournament and even though Palmer's signature is not hard to come by, the fact that it is on a programme from a tournament he won in his most successful season adds a little lustre. Noted golf author Curt Sampson documented the 1960 season in his book The Eternal Summer as Palmer reached the peak of his powers, Ben Hogan strove for one more victory and Jack Nicklaus emerged on the scene.

Having already won the Masters and the US Open, Palmer arrived in Ireland halfway to the Grand Slam and as the quality of the field shows, the Canada Cup was a much bigger deal then compared to its present day World Cup equivalent.

Garvey says he personally wouldn't sell Barrett's multi-autographed programme for less that €300 and reckons it could make up to €500 at auction. Mind you, predicting the outcome of memorabilia auctions is notoriously difficult and the initial results we've seen from last week's UK sales suggest the golfing memorabilia market isn't immune from the downturn.

For the record, Palmer had a downturn of his own following his trip to Portmarnock as his Grand Slam bid was halted by Kel Nagle's victory in the centenary British Open at St Andrews.

We'll report further on recent auctions and on more readers' items in the coming weeks.

We welcome e-mails concerning golf memorabilia and collectibles but cannot guarantee to provide valuations. If you have an interesting story or item, e-mail collectgolf@gmail.com