What's rare is wonderful - and difficult to part with

GOLFING MEMORABILIA:In the first of a new series on collectibles GARY MORANtalks to a man who has made a business of his passion.

THERE AREN'T many people who can see an upside to the credit crunch but in Michael Neary's multifaceted golf business, it seems every cloud has a silver lining.

The 54-year-old Dubliner won three caps playing cricket for Ireland but got hooked on golf and specifically the collecting game when he realised a 5,000 per cent profit on one of the first golf books he ever owned.

Over 30 years ago, Neary walked into a bookshop in Waterford and parted with 50 pence for what turned out to be a 1902 edition of Golf by Horace Hutchinson. The book formed part of the Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes, which was popular at the turn of the last century. Popular then but rare now. Neary quickly discovered it was worth £50 and he has been wheeling and dealing in golf collectibles ever since.

Sixteen years ago he left behind a career in the hotel industry to turn his hobby into a business and opened Golfing Memories in Bray, Co Wicklow.

From there, by post, in person and more recently via the internet, he trades in everything from programmes to putters and from books to baseball caps.

In the first month, his sales totalled £240 and his rent was £250. Ever since he has bolstered the operation by dealing in prizes for societies and contemporary golf equipment, including his biggest seller - batteries for electric caddy cars.

It's when an item of golfing history is in his hands that he is most animated, however. It's pleasure over profit.

Earlier this year, the present owner of the putter Fred Daly used to win the British Open in 1947 walked into the shop with a tale to tell and a job for Neary.

The man's father housed Daly when he played in the Irish Open at Portmarnock in 1948. He declined payment and, in lieu, Daly gifted him the putter he had used at Hoylake the previous year. Neary mounted it on a fine piece of wood with an engraved plate but didn't get to buy it for himself.

The desire to acquire or retain particular items surely has an adverse effect on Neary's bottom line, at least in the short term.

On the day I called, he had received from a dealer in the US a pristine copy of the programme for the 1933 US Open at North Shore CC, Illinois. It cost him over €1,000. But when I asked him why he bought it, he could not explain. A lengthy pause and a resigned sigh were followed by, "Ach, I don't know. I haven't an idea."

One reason is because he has a copy of nearly every other US Open programme ever published so it filled a gap in his collection.

And there is no denying that for someone who loves the game there is a little thrill in flicking through the pages and seeing the tee times for Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Tommy Armour.

And it's old and it's rare and even if it gets in the way of business, collecting is part of his life so he buys it with no real intention of selling it. Not any time soon anyway.

Neary, who plays in Old Conna, says the rest of his family think he's mad and have no interest so eventually he'll put the whole lot up for sale. There could be another credit crunch and a couple of downturns before that.

"I remember the last time there was a recession here, stuff came out of the woodwork. There were paintings, medals, putters and old balls. The recession brings stuff out of the attic."

A fire in the shop in 2001 destroyed many items, including a photograph with a personal message and signature from Tiger Woods and a Bobby Jones flicker book that was given free with each set of Jones irons sold in Elvery's in the 1940s.

What he'd most like to get now is a signed first edition of Jones's Golf is My Game.

If you want to start your own collection or just enhance your TV viewing, Neary can sell you the programme - or "Journal" - for this week's Masters or any of the upcoming major championships.

He's planning a trip to Texas in 2011 to write a book about Ben Hogan and in the meantime he's happy behind the counter of the shop "where you can walk in, spend two hours and not know what you'll find".

That's the way he wants it. And that's the way it is.

Michael Neary

Golfing Memories,

4 Dublin Road,

Bray, Co Wicklow

Tel: (01) 2827297

Website: www.irishgolfbooks.com

Email: m@irishgolfbooks.com