Programmes and pamphlets can fetch a pretty penny

GOLF COLLECTIBLES AND MEMORABILIA PART 8:There is constant demand, much of it from the USA, for old publications, from fiction to tutorials to modest club bulletins, writes Gary Moran

LAST WEEK'S column concerning Irish golf collectibles produced some interesting emails from readers, among them Gerry O'Rourke from Dublin piquing our interest with details of his programme from an exhibition played at Woodbrook in 1961.

The match in question was a fourball involving the professionals Harry Bradshaw and Christy Greene and the celebrities Bing Crosby and the United States ambassador to Ireland, Grant Stockdale, whom the programme describes as being capable of shooting any score from 82 to beyond.

Although he played in numerous such games in the US, this may have been Crosby's first match in Ireland and his photograph appears on the front cover. Inside there are helpful notes for spectators, including Rule 3: Under no circumstances will any of the players break into a run. Therefore there will be no necessity for spectators to break into a run.

O'Rourke's copy is autographed by Bradshaw, Greene and Stockdale, and the fact Crosby's signature is missing does not much alter the modest valuation of €80 to €100.

According to Paul Garvey of irishgolfarchive.com, it is possibly the first programme issued for a celebrity match in Ireland, and despite the relatively low valuation he considers it a beautiful memento most likely to appeal to an Irish-American collector.

Garvey is an expert on Irish golf books and some of the pre-second World War titles can fetch big prices. As long ago as 1994, the 1915 edition of the Irish Golfing Guide fetched €2,000 at auction and a copy of the 1910 edition in less-than-perfect condition made €1,350 five years ago. The guides were published from 1909 to 1916.

Grant's Sportsman's Holiday Guide 1897 has rarely appeared for sale but would likely go for around €750 while it is impossible to give an accurate estimate for The Irish Golfer's Annual 1897 as only one copy is known to exist and that is in a private collection.

Back at the end of the 19th century the Hezlet sisters May, Florence and Violet were the Maguire siblings of their day and May, born in Gibraltar in 1882 but raised in Ireland, was ultimately the best player of the three.

She won the British Amateur for the first of three times at Royal County Down in 1899 and remains the youngest winner of the title. That record may fall to Lisa or Leona Maguire in the next few years but we assume that it will be a long time before the Maguires write a book that sells for €600, the sum a good copy of May Hezlet's Ladies Golf (either 1904 or 1907 editions) would be likely to bring in at auction.

Bernard Darwin's Golf Courses of the British Isles (1910) could go for up to €1,000.

George C Nash penned a humorous series of books known as the Roughover trilogy. Letters to the Secretary of a Golf Club (1935), General Forcursue and Co (1936) and Whelk's Postbag (1937) were fictional letters from members of a British club including the formidable General Sir Armstrong Forcursue, who tried to drive the club secretary Patrick Whelk around the bend with incessant threats and sabotage. A copy of General Forcursue and Co sold for $330 in the US this year, and a set of the books in mediocre condition sold for $315 in 2005.

Patrick Campbell's Round Ireland with a Golf Bag, collated from articles that appeared in this newspaper and published in 1937 is worth over €200.

Getting away from monetary values, there are some books that are essential reference works for Irish collectors and historians. William Gibson's Early Irish Golf (1988), William Menton's The Golfing Union of Ireland (1891-1991) and the Dermot Gilleece/John Redmond collaboration Irish Ladies Golf Union - An Illustrated Centenary History 1893-1993 are three such.

Some collectors have a special interest in club centenary booklets. The first one published in Ireland was for Royal Belfast in 1988 and it would now trade for around €100. Michael Neary has every Irish club centenary publication at Golfing Memories, his shop in Bray, and bemoans the fact that having gone to the trouble of producing the histories, clubs get them printed in such small numbers.

The quality of centenary publications has risen in recent years, books replacing booklets and pamphlets, and there are collectors on the other side of the Atlantic who want a copy of every one even if they are never likely to set foot on the premises of the clubs in question.

This column welcome emails concerning golf memorabilia and collectibles but cannot guarantee to provide valuations. If you have an interesting story or item, email collectgolf@gmail.com.