Toronto - When I started to research this topic I never imagined the various collecting divisions that existed as subcategories of golfing. The following, I think, are worth men-tioning, just to give you an idea of the magnitude of this collectible field: art, autographs, books, balls, ball boxes, bags, bag tags, clubs (wood shaft), club (organization) history, drivers, fancy face woods, emblems, golf jewelry, classic play clubs, medals, memorabilia, putters, programs, score cards, tools of golf; trophies, wedges, and the list goes on.

     The generalists, those collectors/dealers who offer a little bit of everything in every category, are far more numerous than the specialists. When one thinks of the growth of golf; one re-alizes that the very early items are quite rare and, of course, as a result much more valuable.

     As an example of this I have listed some of the "statistics on the number of golf courses in the United Kingdom. In 1850 there were only seventeen; by 1870 the figure had doubled to 34. By 1890 it had increased eleven fold to 387.

By 1900, just ten years later, it had increased to 2,330 and ten years after that, in 1910 in the United Kingdom there were 4,135 golf courses.

     The statistics for North America are not as plentiful. Suffice to say that by 1890 there were a 'handful" of golf courses. In the decade between 1890 and 1900 over 1,000 courses ex-isted. In the next three decades at least 10,000 courses were built in North America in each decade.

Antique Wooden Putters