As the possessor of two letters written by the late Gene Sarazen my attention was caught by the recent valuation in the US of a handwriting collage involving the signatures of himself and fellow golf legends Francis Ouimet, Walter Hagen, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer at $15,000. The only problem is that the others on the list have not had occasion to write to me.

People, it seems, are reaching back to a time when they believe there was something more pure and appealing about the Royal and Ancient game. So it is that the collecting of golf memorabilia has become quite a passionate activity in recent years.

"The more people play golf, the more they want to get involved with the old artifacts and golfing art work," said Edward Monagle, the golf expert at Christie's in Glasgow. "Someone may have a particular interest in a collection of clubs while for someone else it could be a collection of balls. But both would be interested in golfing art."

His point gained rich emphasis in a Sotherby's auction in London in November 1997 when a painting depicting the scene on a teeing ground with a woman golfer at the top of her follow-through and titled The Links, North Berwick, was sold to an anonymous bidder for £660,000 sterling.

The painting was by an Irishman, Sir John Lavery, who was born in Belfast in 1956. In fact he did a number of delightful paintings at North Berwick where he spent considerable time staying with friends. So it was that, 56 years after his death, he has claimed a unique golfing distinction.

The value of a collectible is greatly enhanced by having an interesting context. This is especially true of individual clubs, like the heavy, metal-headed putter sold at Christie's in 1998 for $100,000. "It was probably used at St Andrews 200 years ago," said Monagle, who acquired the club from the Royal Perth Golfing Society. "It weighed a ton and looked like it was made in 1950 but, in fact, dated back to 1790."

Monagle expressed the view that it was most likely custom-made by a blacksmith for a client with a particular need for a heavy implement. Indeed he went so far as to suggest that the customer "probably had the yips". This shouldn't be all that surprising really, when one considers that the mowers and groomers of the period were almost certainly a local flock of sheep.

Of far more recent vintage is the so-called Croquet R shaft Redwood City putter by Ping, an early high-tech prototype club which recently fetched $36,000. While a putter used by Willie Park, winner of the inaugural British Open in 1860, was sold for £60,000. Then there were the specialist clubs, like a Scottish iron circa 1700 which Jaime Patino, the owner of Valderrama, bought at a Sotherby's sale in Musselburgh in 1992 for £92,400 sterling. These are of special interest for the manner in which they evoke the playing conditions of their period.

"In the old days," explained Monagle, "they would always play the ball from where it lay. And the weather was so awful in Scotland they would frequently encounter what we now describe as casual water. To cope with these conditions, they used a ball which would float, so that if they ended up in casual water, the ball would remain on the surface."

He went on: "Obviously, they needed a club that would play the ball off the top of the water." This led clubmakers to create implements with pierced faces which would slip smoothly through the water, but they were later banned by the Royal and Ancient when equipment became regulated.

Patino's Valderrama collection is acknowledged to be one of the most important by a private individual worldwide, not least for its variety.

For instance, it includes the menu from the US Ryder Cup victory dinner at East Lake GC in 1963 when the printed list of the "British Team" included "Christie" O'Connor.

Meanwhile, a recent visitor to the home of Nicklaus in Florida, told me that it contained surprisingly few trophies, simply because all of the important ones resided in museums, including that of the US Golf Association at Golf House, New Jersey. Hogan's extensive awards also reside there in a specially dedicated room.

But the definitive collection is unquestionably that which is housed in the British Golf Museum. This was established about six years ago on the Bruce Embankment in St Andrews, just across the road from the R and A clubhouse. Quite simply, its contents are priceless in that they include a breathtaking array of artifacts from every significant period of the game and, as one would expect, the museum is especially comprehensive regarding the British Open.

When it comes to the written word, few golfers create as much interest as the great Bobby Jones - and for a rather special reason. "His signature changed drastically from the 1920s to the 1930s and to the last round of golf he played (at East Lake) in 1948," said Ed Papczun, who is acknowledged as a leading expert on the signatures of Jones and Hogan.

"By the 1960s, it was like a child's writing (because of a debilitating spinal disease). He attached a pen through the middle of a tennis ball so he could sign his name. In that way, he could still provide a signature up until his death."

A piece which holds particular fascination for Papczun is a letter signed by Jones to Hagen. And it takes on a current relevance in the light of the impending release of the Robert Redford movie The Legend of Bagger Vance, which centres on a challenge match involving Jones, Hagen and a fictitious Georgian golfer by the name of Rannulph Junah, whose caddie happens to be the mysterious Vance.

Incidentally, those who may be tempted to look to the Internet for bargains, however, are warned to tread very warily. Chris Scutte of the King's Golf and Sporting Antiques on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, warns: "For every 100 items a buyer can find on the Internet, 95 will be forgeries. And there's no way to govern that."

In a way, it would be a pity if there were such simple short-cuts to success. For the classic image of a collector is one who is prepared to make considerable sacrifices, of both time and money, to acquire their heart's desire.

As John Gleason, a leading American collector, put it: "It's not about making a lot of money. I really love amateur golf and I want others to share this love."