Building a Golf History Golffice

Anyone can build their own Golf History Golffice and the intent of today’s newsletter is to give you some helpful ideas to create or perhaps refine your own.

I have been fortunate to build a small golf museum and while I will share some of the pieces with you in this newsletter, it is important to note that a Golffice, even a golf history centric one, doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg.

My Golffice Museum

My Golffice Museum has evolved over the past decade from a simple home office that had one piece of golf art to a small museum filled with historical golf art, history books, historical artifacts and great stories.

The central theme of my Golffice is pre-1900 golf, however I have made plenty of exceptions in the last decade. The criteria beyond pre-1900 golf history is that the artifact must tell a story or portray tremendous beauty.

As you can see from the image above I have treated the walls of the Golffice more like an Art Museum than a Library. I think this is one of the pivotal choices you will need to make. Do you want to be surrounded by words (think Golf Library) or Art and Artifacts (think Golf Museum) or perhaps a combination of both. I chose to lean heavily on art and artifacts, but there is no wrong choice.

My decision has also created a dilemma…where do I keep all of my golf books, which number in the hundreds? I am doing my best to expand the Golffice, or at least my book collection to one of our bonus rooms in the house, but as it stands today the floor of the Golffice is lined with books- certainly less than ideal from a decor standpoint.

My advice on building a Golffice:

1. Identify the theme or story you want to tell. The same can be said about collecting golf artifacts. In the beginning people tend to acquire all sorts of things, but as time goes by, I find that it’s better to be selective and have a plan.

2. I think every Golffice needs an anchor or anchors. This does a lot of things. One it draws you in- it also allows you to conserve capital for a couple of items and then build the collection or story around those core anchor items.

3. It doesn’t have to be valuable to be valuable to you. There isn’t an artifact in this world that has a set value. If you find an item valuable, its real value is how much you would be willing to part with it for. This mindset while building a Golffice is invaluable. I have items in my Golffice that would be near worthless in a garage sale, but to me they are priceless. If this is your mindset- anyone can build a Golffice. A great example of this is my trashcan. It’s cheap metal trashcan painted green- on its face it is completely worthless, however this crusty bucket once held sand that was used to make sand tees at Oakhurst Links, which was founded in 1884 and is one of the oldest golf courses in the USA.

   

   An original bucket from Oakhurst Links

4. If you are building a Golffice with the idea of creating your own museum, I will add this advice. One great item is worth 25 good items. Great golf items are rare, they can be quite expensive, but their rarity generally means they appreciate faster (if that is your ultimate goal). In terms of dollars, an item that is worth $1000 will generally appreciate faster than 10 items that are worth $100 a piece. Different things drive value, but expensive items tend to appreciate faster than inexpensive items. That by no way is a rule, just an observation.

5. I believe that you never truly own a golf artifact, but rather you are merely paying to maintain it and care for it while it is in your possession.

6. Sweat the small things! Anchors are great, but when paired with smaller items and maybe even quirky items it adds to the richness of your space.

7. Surround yourself with things that you enjoy. I love golf history and I love art and that is obvious when you stand in my Golffice. What do you like and how could you go about surrounding yourself with more of it? Let’s say you enjoy golf course architecture (so do I for the record), how would you go about building a space around that love? Here is how I might explore the idea? The first thing I would do is to make sure that your walls have more than one texture. What does that mean? Don’t just fill it with framed photos of the same size and color. You can create a space with some of your favorite photos, add in some blue prints, maybe some oil or watercolor paintings. By doing this you create a rich mosaic of golf course architecture rather than a bland wall of photos.

8. As soon as something becomes a piece of furniture, then it is time to move on from it. There may be items that you acquire, that over time, just become pieces of furniture to you. That is to say, even some of the rarest of golf antiquities can become ordinary over time. If that happens, my advice is to move on from it and allow someone else to enjoy it, be that a collector or a museum.

The best thing about having a Golffice is that it becomes a place you want to work in. I love being in my Golffice- I love to look around and think about the history of the game of golf. It’s not only a place where I do work, it has become a place where I like to relax.

Answers to Your Questions:

1. What was the first item you acquired for the Golffice?

Answer: In 2008 I acquired a full scale print of John Smart’s “In Pandy Play Two More” which still resides in the Golffice. That one piece of artwork sent me down this path. It also sent me on a decade long search to acquire all of Smart’s hand painted 1880 prints, which now make up my Smart Wall.

2. What is your favorite item in the Golffice?

Answer: Just like my children, I don’t have a favorite. I have quite a few anchor pieces (somewhere around fifteen), more than I ever intended. I should add that some items that I don’t consider to be anchors in my collection, could anchor a pretty strong collection. When I come to think about it, it might be time to start unloading some items.

3. What is the coolest item in the Golffice that isn’t worth a lot of money?

Answer: Well I already talked about the Oakhurst Links Sand Bucket. I bought one item for $20 at a flea market in Palm Springs that I absolutely adore because it’s like its own piece of art…this rainbow Ginty!

4. What’s the Most Expensive Item in the Golffice?

Answer: I honestly have no idea because I don’t know how to put a value on something I consider priceless.

5. What is the oldest item in the Golffice?

I have an original membership certificate for the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Leith Links from 1784.

6. What is the one item that most people want to see when they visit your Golffice?

Answer: Great question and the answer often depends on the golfer. The most popular is likely the first ever routing map of Augusta National Golf Club which was acquired from Alister Mackenzie’s chief engineer. The routing is dated 1931 and many of the holes are different from what was built years later. Second to the ANGC routing the other attraction seems to be the Merion Wicker Flagstick which is near impossible to acquire.

If you are interested and want to hear more about some of the artifacts that reside within the Golffice- here is a show dedicated to this mini-museum on the TalkinGolf History Podcast.

Click on the TalkinGolf History Links/Icon below to listen to the podcast free of charge!

The best part about building your own Golffice, is that you can make it your own. It could be filled with good art, or flags from your favorite courses…it can be anything your heart desires.

Have fun with it!

Thank you for taking the time to read our free weekly newsletter dedicated to the history of the game of golf. If you enjoy it, please let your friends know that they should subscribe too. Again it’s completely free of charge!

Yours in Golf History,

Connor T.