COLLECTIBLES AND MEMORABILIA PART 23:The Scotty Cameron tour putter is a serious item. Gary Moran takes a tour of the market
IT'S ALMOST a month since this column featured a multiplicity of Scotty Cameron collectibles with a promise that research was ongoing for a column exclusively about the core Cameron product, which is of course the putter.
That is not an assignment to be undertaken lightly. Ploughing through the available information is as daunting as 72 holes of strokeplay at Oakland Hills for a 28-handicapper. Distilling it down to 800 words is like the 28-handicapper breaking par.
We could simply direct you to www.cameroncollector.com and wash our hands of it. Since its inception little more than three years ago, the site's forum has received almost 750,000 posts by over 7,000 members on over 50,000 topics. There have been 56-million page views and at least 10 members have submitted more than 5,000 posts each.
One is Bill Vogeney from Colorado, a friend and fan of Cameron, a collector and co-author with David Levine of The Art of Putters: The Scotty Cameron Story.
"If it was like school grades then one of Scotty's off-the-rack putters that you would buy in a pro shop is like getting an A. It's a fantastic putter just like an A is a fantastic grade", Vogeney told The Irish Times. "But his tour putters are A-plus. They're absolutely the best and have a little more pzazz. They're worked by hand, stamped by hand, look a little different, but they can cost 10 times as much or more."
That puts the difference between an A and an A-plus at around €2,000 and leaves the tour putters in the hands of only tour professionals, serious collectors or amateurs with possibly more money than sense.
The tour putters differ from the off-the-rack models in that they are made with superior materials, are typically altered or finished by hand and are inspected personally by Cameron.
Those stamped with the initials of the intended player carry extra cachet among collectors, and some of those do find their way onto the collectors market, as do uninitialled tour putters that have been used in competition but discarded and the small unused surplus from the Cameron studio.
The company will often make several similar putters for a player, who may not take them all. The surplus ones are put on general sale through three US and one Japanese channel. The US sites are www.tablerock.com, www.theartofputters.com and www.whattheprosplay.com
Last week, www.tablerock.com had 15 tour putters for sale, the cheapest at €1,200 and the most expensive - a rare model made for Bob Estes that never went into mass production - at €1,850.
Unfortunately, there is no single way to tell if a club is a tour putter, though many are known as "Circle T".
If you're in possession of a Cameron stamped with a player's initials and/or a large T inside a circle, you have something to get excited about.
Pricey and all though they are, tour putters are far from the most expensive Cameron creations. Well before he got Cameron Golf International off the ground in 1993 or went under the Titleist umbrella the following year, Cameron had several other jobs in the industry and since his teenage years had made between 300 and 500 putters using a small, manual milling machine.
These were stamped "Scott Cameron", and in Vogeney's estimation, even a badly beaten-up example would fetch €3,500 while a near-perfect or unusual one could make €18,500.
None have surfaced in the last couple of years.
While there is still some tweaking by hand of the tour putters, the heads are now generally made by computer-controlled milling machines and since 1997 Cameron, as far as we know, has hand-made putters only for Phil Mickelson and Ben Crenshaw. When Mickelson switched from Titleist to Callaway equipment he also moved to Odyssey putters.
Cameron's career got a significant boost when Bernhard Langer won the 1993 Masters using one of his putters and he has produced many limited editions to commemorate major wins by players using his clubs.
One of 274 (the winning score) produced after David Duval's British Open win in 2001 is for sale from www.tablerock.com for €1,200. And Camilo Villegas might manage a satisfied smile if he goes to the same site today and sees their tour version of the Scotty Cameron Circa 62 on sale for €1,400.
Not that he needs to save money but Villegas won the recent BMW Championship and Tour Championship with an off-the-rack edition (circa €220) of the same putter complete with a good, old-fashioned piece of lead tape customisation to the head.
Tour winner or duffer, all sensible golfers know that the only really valuable putter is the one that works for them.
• This column welcomes emails from readers concerning golf memorabilia and collectibles but cannot guarantee to provide valuations. If you have an interesting story or item, email collectgolf@gmail.com
