Source: VT Golf Magazine | Issue: Summer 1997 | Author: Evelyn Earl
Synopsis: This article is about the value behind collecting golf antiques and the value golf history holds throughout understanding the cultural aspects in Vermont.
The collecting of Vermont Golfiana is a rewarding hobby for those frivolous enough to engage in it, and not just for the obvious reasons. In addition to filling your house with bric-a-brac-, the pursuit can broaden one’s knowledge of the history of the game, and the story of Vermont’s place is the game’s history. It can expose you to a wonderful network of fellow collectors, who became new friends, more than happy to share their collecting experiences and finds. It can also be very profitable if you can bear to part with the gems you unearth.
I met the congenial author and book illustrator Patrick Kennedy, and his wife Jean at the Stowe Country Club on a mild and pleasant afternoon last summer. Pat is a knowledgeable collector of Vermont golfiana, and as we chatted, he handed me a small bag of irregularly carved wooden pegs. These primitive tees were created around 1930 by the Newton & Thompson Mfg. Co. of Brandon, Vermont. They were stained, some a teak colors and others an oak shade. Some had tops that measure almost an inch while others were very short. We wondered, without conclusion, if the tees were designed to deal with specific conditions and distance. These wooden tees were manufactured a mere six years after American dental surgeon William Lowell patented the first wooden golf tees in 1924, “Teeing off” as the phrase was coined, replaced striking at the ball from a mound of pinched sand.