Golf Bookends

For collectors of golf memorabilia, golf bookends represent a number of themes. Famous personalities of this great sport are a favorite of collectors and enthusiasts. If fact, for the average golf fanatic is interested in all things golf. Just as the inner struggle of the left brain and the right brain, of mind and body, a bookend can reflect this complexity in very simple ways. Imagine a large bronze golf ball, simply cut in two. That simple bookend is probably more symbolic than any other, just two halves of the same whole.

Few sports epitomize the inner self more than golf. Golfers play, not against a team or even the golf course. Golfers play against themselves. Some golfers describe it as the classic yin and yang, as in the mind against the body. Think of the process as akin to decorative bookends, the goal being to meet somewhere in the middle. The mind knows exactly what needs to done. The struggle comes in getting the body to do what the mind knows is right. Like mismatched bookends, the result is not always simpatico.

Whimsy and humor can be found in many sets of golf bookends, reflecting the not so serious side of the game. Most of us who play this game are hackers at best and a good sense of humor can get us through even the worst round of golf. Having said that, I need would more than hand to count the number of clubs that have ended up in the nearest lake. Most golfers would appreciate a gift of bookends that feature some of the funnier aspects of the game.

Some of the most celebrated figures in golf are immortalized in golf collectable bookends. The great tournaments of this timeless game are a natural inspiration for many types of memorabilia. Bookends can be found that commemorate tournaments such as the Masters, the US Open and the Tournament Players Championship. Some may feature tournament plaques mounted on fine wood or the winner sculpted in bronze.

The equipment and tools of golf have change over the years. Metal has replaced the traditional persimmon wood that was once used in the finest clubs. Purists of the game can find replica club heads, once thought relegated to the scrap heap, made into bookends. Bookends made from other types of antique golf clubs are very popular among collectors and fans of this timeless game.

Driving and fairway woods made of fine persimmon wood were the standard through most of the twentieth century. My first set of garage sale golf clubs included persimmon woods. Once I mastered the basics of the swing, and earned some money, I abandoned those classic persimmon woods for modern metal. Those beautiful persimmon club heads, the hosel and part of the shaft, mounted on heavy oak, now grace my bookshelf.

Literally thousands of different putters have since replaced the humble cleek. During the late eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds, the cleek served as a putter and general utility club. Thin bladed and with just two or three degrees of loft, the cleek sported a hickory wood shaft. Hickory was used as shaft material for most all golf clubs until the early nineteen hundreds.

Cleeks, spoons and baffles have all been replaced by more modern club designs. Hi tech materials like titanium and carbon fiber have replaced hickory and steel. Whether we see the hi tech clubs of today memorialized as collectible golf bookends remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, classic equipment, historic events and personalities that have made the game of golf what it is are remembered in art, books and very often in collectible golf bookends.