Green Jacket Auctions' Statement on Early Golf Clubs

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Green Jacket Auctions(!!!), we’ve been surveying the hobby and have an observation to share: early golf clubs, which for decades were the driving force of the entire collecting industry, are vastly oversold and incredibly undervalued in the current market. This is especially true for museum quality clubs, which we consider to be the top 5% of known examples. If there has ever been a time in the past 50 years to pay attention to the earliest golf clubs, now is that moment.

Museum Quality Circa 1820 Hugh Philp Long Spoon

“[A] genuine ‘Philp’ today is worth untold gold". That quote was written nearly 116 years ago – in the October 5, 1900 issue of "Golf Illustrated".

More than a century has passed, but in terms of golf memorabilia, no truer words have ever been spoken.

They call Hugh Philp the "Stradivarius" of golf clubmakers - an ode to the late 17th/early 18th century violin maker still regarded as perhaps greatest craftsman in history. Other clubmakers respected Hugh Philp's work so much that they played with his clubs, not their own. None other than Old Tom Morris, Willie Park, Sr., and Willie Dunn, Sr.  - all clubmakers themselves - were known to have favored Hugh Philp clubs when they played golf. And after Philp’s death in 1856, other clubmakers advertised that they could produce a [fake] Philp club for the willing buyer!

In Jeff Ellis' tome, "The Clubmaker's Art,"  he states that Hugh Philp "has been universally recognized as clubmaking's finest artisan." ("The Clubmaker's Art", 2nd Edition, p. 54). Even during the 1890s, people advertised in "Golf" magazine to purchase Philp's clubs for well above the prices for any other club. This is a rare opportunity to own one of the earliest examples of the craftsmanship of Hugh Philp. This example is made of golden thornwood, and bears the rough file work to the face as seen on others of this era. Ancient clubs of this era in this condition are a rarity in itself. The sole of this club bears the inscription once applied by a serious collector of ancient clubs.

Hugh Philp, of course, went on to refine his craft by designing some of the most elegant and superbly detailed clubs of the 1830s & 1840s. Any club by Hugh Philp is worth collecting. But we consider the offered example to be museum quality in the top 5% of Hugh Philp clubs.