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He has been gathering wooden-shafted clubs, and other golf memorabilia for about 20 years, but tracking down a highly prized antique still brings a thrill.
However, his collection now includes about 250 clubs, and that is getting to be a problem. Fleis said he plans on trimming the collection a bit and focusing more on quality clubs.
“When you have more than you can display, what’s the point? Besides, you can only spend so much money,” Fleis said.
The long-time golfer, and president of Fleis Insurance Agency in Onalaska, estimated he is probably the biggest collector of golf clubs and related memorabilia in the Coulee Region and among the top 10 in Wisconsin.
He has several old and rare clubs that would probably bring a few thousand dollars each on the market. But Fleis, like almost all collectors, has budget restrictions on his hobby.
“There are some things I want, but probably will never have, because they’re just too expensive,” he said.
Many of the golf world’s oldest and most valuable clubs were forged by blacksmiths in England, Scotland and Ireland. Wooden shafts, mainly hickory, were used, along with calfskin or sheepskin grips. Some of those club makers moved to America as the game spread and became more popular.
Metal began appearing in club shafts about 80 years ago, although at first it was given a brown coating to match the still-popular wooden shafts. That coating is so realistic it can fool novice collectors. If you’re unsure, apply a magnet to the club shaft in question. Steel shafts were declared legal by the U.S. Golf Association in 1924.
By the way, unscrupulous operators have made their way into the world of golf memorabilia.
“There are fakes out there,” Fleis cautioned. They are so well done that even experts can’t identify them easily.
“I can’t tell,” Fleis said. “That’s why you need to develop a relationship with an honest dealer.”
Fans of golf memorabilia seeking items to add to their collections frequently attend regional gatherings sponsored by the Golf Collectors Society. That organization, probably the most influential body in the world of golf memorabilia, was founded in 1970 and is dedicated to preserving the treasures and traditions of golf. The society has 1,400 members in 15 countries, and those members collect clubs, balls, books, tees, ceramics, art, programs, postcards, magazines, autographs and silver items related to golf.
The latest golf collectible?
Anything that has a connection to Tiger Woods, Fleis said.
Collectors seem to speak a foreign language as they discuss old clubs. Modern golfers refer to woods, irons, wedges and putters. But collectors use club names like cleeks, niblicks, mashies, spoons and brassies.
“Like anything else, scarcity and condition influence the price,” Fleis said.
One of his prized clubs is called a long-nose, because it has a wooden head that resembles a stretched version of a modern fairway wood. It has a ram’s horn plate on the bottom, dates to the 1860s and probably is worth about $2,000, Fleis estimated.
Another of Fleis’ clubs, called a “pretty face” because of its colorful design in the hitting zone, dates to 1920 but closely resembles a modern wood. Despite being a relatively modern club it is collectible because of its scarcity and uniqueness.
Deep grooves on its hitting face make another club a highly prized collectible. Fleis said his deep-grooves iron probably dates to about 1910 and was designed to allow golfers to impart backspin on shots. Those clubs were so effective they were eventually banned, “and anything banned becomes collectible,” Fleis noted.
By the way, collectors sometimes do golf with their old clubs. There are tournaments whose entrants must play exclusively with wooden-shafted clubs, for instance.
Fleis said he has played two rounds with his old clubs. “I used my American-made wood-shafted clubs, which don’t have much value for collecting.” Replicas of balls used 70 and 80 years ago can be purchased today to go with those old clubs.
Old-style balls, propelled by antique clubs, “don’t go as far,” Fleis said. Using the old equipment makes the game “quite different,” he added. “It is hard to imagine the pros, back in those days, shooting in the 70s with these things.”
Golf balls have evolved over the years and also are a very collectible item, according to Fleis. Wooden balls were used at first, maybe back in the 1600s, and they were replaced by feather balls. Fleis has a feather ball, which dates to the late 1800s and was packed with wet goose feathers and then sewn together.
The first rubber balls began appearing in the early 1900s, although their rifled and line-cut exteriors don’t much resemble today’s dimpled balls. Fleis has a 1930s-era ball that apparently predicted the modern game and its dominant player. The ball is stamped “U.S. Tiger.”
One of Fleis’ collectibles, a wooden and leather club holder, was unearthed in La Crosse, when a reader responded to one of his ads. The tripod-shaped device is capable of standing upright on its legs like modern bags. Nearly new in condition, it is able to hold clubs because it has a leather pouch on its bottom and a leather buckle near the top.
“It is my best find,” Fleis said.
