J. Gray Track Iron, Circa 1860

with Mort Olman and Jeff Ellis Provenance

        Presented here is certainly the most documented and widely-known early track iron in existence - a very early John Gray Track Iron.

        This is the very same club pictured on page 84 in Mort Olman's "Encyclopedia of Golf Collectibles". For many years, Olman was regarded as the premier dealer of the very finest golf related artifacts, and this particular club was undoubtedly chosen to be photographed because of its extremely small, thick, curved head which is barely the size of a golf ball.

        The club was later acquired by noted collector Jeff Ellis and was pictured and described in both of his books, "The Clubmaker's Art", and "The Golf Club". It is interesting to note that in "The Clubmaker's Art", Ellis has a photograph of all 6 track irons in his impresive collection, and the early John Gray currently offered features the smallest head of the group!

        Simply put, this is an outstanding all original example of a true track/rut iron by John Gray of Prestwick. The head is extremely small, and was designed to extract a ball from a wagon track or rut that were frequently encountered in golf's early days. Gray began forging iron heads about 1850 and was one of the first cleek makers to stamp their name on the heads.