Now, for the rest of the story.  Sometime after I left for the University of Michigan in the fall of 1961 and starting work as an attorney in May of 1968, my program collection disappeared - like so many baseball card collections.  Somehow they were thrown away.  Gone.  Lost, except to my memory.

While I was in junior high school, my Dad began collecting golf art.  Dad practiced municipal bond law, representing villages, cities and counties when they sold bonds to raise money to finance public buildings, streets and water and sewer facilities.  Most bond issues were purchased by banks in New York City or Chicago and Dad traveled there frequently.  As the 1936 National Amateur Champion and a three-time Walker Cupper, Dad had a natural interest in golf, but he was equally interested in art, especially paintings.

On his trips, Dad began combing antique stores and art galleries for paintings and prints related to golf.  When he ran across something it was usually inexpensive.  In the 1950's, 60's and 70's, there was little interest in golf art.  After a while dealers began to call him when a golf item came into their possession.  No one else was interested.

Over the years, Dad explained to me why he liked some paintings and not others.  He "discovered" Arthur Weaver, the British painter of golf scenes and an equally good portrait painter.  For a long while, Dad had a right of first refusal on all of Weaver's golf course paintings through Weaver's U.S. agent in Chicago.

Dad used the Weaver paintings instructionally for me.  He viewed them as landscapes, not golf paintings, which had to stand on their on as a work of art. Dad taught me to look at how light was used, proper perspective and appreciation of brush strokes.  Dad was entirely self-taught, constantly reading art books and magazines, but became a respected expert consulted by others, including professional dealers and appraisers.

Over the years, I have developed a fondness for watercolors.  As an art form, watercolors are difficult to do well.  The painting is usually done in a single sitting and mistakes are hard to cover up.  One of the reasons I like the Arthur Weaver watercolors is not only that they are good landscapes, but Weaver frequently painted into the sun resulting in some spectacular back lighting, a real tour de force.

In addition to the Weavers, I have some nice watercolors by G. Drummond – Fish and two done in 1893 of North Berwick.  These also meet my overall criteria of being good landscapes which happen to be of golf courses.

I also like the prints Cecil alden did of British golf courses.  Alden is primarily known for his scenes of horses and dogs and the hunt, but his golfing work is a delight.  Alden's original work was in pastels, and a set of beautiful lithographs were made.  The original run was signed by Alden with a printer's chop mark impressed in the lower left hand corner of the border of the print.  There are also several copies without the Alden signature or the chop mark, so careful examination is necessary.

Many golf course paintings are flat without much contrast and ignoring light altogether.  In my view, a painting of the 12^th hole at Augusta is no good unless the structure of the painting is properly balanced, the trees and the water have their own life and the result is truly an impression of what the artist saw.  Too many of such subjects are flat illustrations and when you get them home there is something wrong.  After a while the painting comes off the wall and goes in the closet.

One of my niche collection areas is bronze figures.  I use the term "bronze" loosely because not all the pieces I have are actually bronze.  Some are brass or made from pot metal.

There are some bronze pieces available in the market of Ben Hogan and Harry Varden which are re-casts made from a mold of the original.  There are also statuettes of the great British amateur, John Ball, which were purposely cast in a size smaller than the original so buyers would be aware they were not from the original cast.  These reproductions are nice additions to collections, but should be purchased at a price representative of what they are.

Bronzes are unique and also frequently of historic figures.  One bronze I have is of Freddie Tait, the Hoylake golfer killed in South Africa during the Boer War.  For many years my bronze was thought not to be of Tait because his shoes seemed inappropriate.  When I went to St. Andrews in 1995 for The Open Championship, I took photos of my bronzes.  At a party during tournament week I met Freddie Tait's grandnephew and his wife who said the bronze was a fine likeness of Great Uncle Freddie and also produced a photo showing him with the "questionable" shoes.

Paintings, prints and bronzes can be expensive and enjoying them as art is personal.  The result is not many purchases each year.  Tracking down golf art is a slow process, so to keep me going as a collector I also collect golf postcards and golf photographs.  There are a lot more of each available and each are relatively reasonable in price.  Golf postcards are available at GCS shows, but postcard collectors have shows of their own with a lot of good golf postcards.  I keep my need to find something related to golf fulfilled looking in those categories.

By the way, in the early 1980's, my Dad gave his art collection to the USGA for display at Golf House with the thought others could enjoy what he had spent 30 years collecting.  It was clear that he enjoyed finding golf art, the "chase" so to speak.  Once acquired or a collection completed the thrill of discovery is gone.  As early as 1963, when the USGA Women's Open was held at Kenwood C.C. in Cincinnati, Dad had Joe Dey, then Executive Director of the USGA, over for dinner and showed Joe his collection.  Dey was favorably impressed.  Dad then told Dey he was planning to give his collection to Golf House which he did about 15 years later.

Even after giving his collection to the USGA, Dad continued to collect golf art and sent his latest finds on to the USGA.  Once you get the itch, as all afflicted collectors know, it is hard to stop.