Circa 1800's Wicker Basket

from Great Britain

        While Merion Golf Club is certainly the most famous golf course in the world to employ the use of wicker baskets in place of pin flags, it was not the first course to ever do so. This tradition was borrowed from the U.K., where a handful of 19th century golf courses were known to use wicker basket standards. Whether it was indeed to prevent golfers from getting the "unfair advantage" of knowing the wind direction up at the green, or if it truly evolved from shepherds marking the hole with their walking sticks and knap-sack lunches, the exact origins are of the wicker basket are no known.

        Offered here is an original late 1800's wicker basket standard from the United Kingdom. This beautiful 6" tall standard contains a wicker basket on a bamboo pin. Impressively, the basket itself is marked with the number 17, almost certainly denoting the 17th hole.

         It has been suggested that wicker baskets of this kind were used at Sunningdale in the 1800's, though we have not yet independently verified this information.

    Letter of Authenticity from Green Jacket Auctions (GJA).