MEMORABILIA AND COLLECTIBLES PART 17:A chill economic wind has blown through the auction houses but has not stopped certain prized items attracting record prices, writes Gary Moran

THE DUST has settled on the 2008 British Open Championship and while it was a brilliant triumph for Pádraig Harrington, it was surely a chastening experience for many of the other elite players who left Birkdale with their minds and swings battered by the course and the wind and rain.

A metaphorical chill wind also blew through the auction houses that staged major golf sales in the days before the tournament.

Bonhams' golf specialist Kevin McGimpsey described his firm's sale as the quietest during his five years with the company.

"The market took a correction and it could well be a sign of the times," said McGimpsey, who also cited the weak dollar, the global recession and fewer active buyers as reasons for a downturn in the golf-memorabilia market.

He could have added the glut of auctions, including a huge online golf-book sale at oldgolfauctions.com, which meant supply was up at a time when demand was down.

Gold-rush time for golf memorabilia auctions came in the 1990s. The deep pockets of Jaime Ortiz-Patino ensured premium prices for premium items as he built up a museum at Valderrama. And prior to that a few Japanese buyers sent prices to unprecedented levels in some market sectors.

When the Japanese economy bombed, those buyers quickly disappeared and prices fell back.

Among the highlights for Bonhams this year was the sale of the Wilson Staff ball used by Arnold Palmer to win another of the Birkdale Opens back in 1961. You wouldn't find it today but the ball number was 11 and it had the old 1.62-inch diameter. Signed by the champion, it sold for £930*.

We were surprised that a 12½in Dunlop 65 point-of-sale caddie figurine could be worth £2,760, but apparently the one on sale at Bonhams was only the second of its type to come to auction within the last decade and achieved that figure despite a few small paint chips and a missing leather strap.

Several experts we spoke to reported prices for Ryder Cup items holding up well and Bonhams sold a teams dinner menu from the 1929 matches at Moortown for £3,360.

A "very mixed year" was the verdict of Colin Palmer of Maxwells and that was borne out by the fate of two of their most exciting lots. Willie Fernie's 1883 Open Championship winner's medal fetched £48,500, which set a record for a golf medal by just beating the £48,000 paid three years ago for Mungo Park's 1874 winner's medal.

The Fernie medal had stayed in the family until 2002 but has had three owners since. The latest is a private buyer in the North of England.

Maxwell's were also selling the set of Hogan "Personal Model" irons, owned by the American Stuart Stebenne, that we featured extensively a few weeks ago. The guide price was £15,000-£25,000 and they didn't get a single bid.

Apart from the downturn, some people may have questioned the authenticity of the irons, although Stebenne's research has been painstaking and he has unearthed even more relevant material in the last couple of weeks.

For the time being he says he is not disappointed at all with this outcome and believes the set will only go up in value as time shows that they were indeed Hogan's own irons.

Paul Garvey of irishgolfarchive.com helped us to pick over some of the items of specific Irish interest. Although there wasn't too much to get excited about, a record of £190 was paid at Maxwells for a 1935 Irish Open programme.

A comparison with the £30 paid for the programme from the 1950 tournament shows the extra cachet of pre-second World War artefacts. A programme from the Open at Hoylake in 1947 went for £270, which was well off prices achieved in the past.

Mullock's shifted a combined lot of a signed first edition of Golf as I See It by Fred Daly and a signed first edition of Himself by Christy O'Connor snr for £85. But at Bonhams a 1933 Irish Open competitor's badge (guide £250 to £400) and a Braddell of Belfast brassie (guide £200 to £300) both failed to sell.

Downturn or not, both Bonhams (www.bonhams.com) and Mullocks ( www.mullocksauctions.co.uk) plan to hold further golf auctions in the next six months.

Another place where you can buy and sell items is Michael Neary's Golfing Memories shop in Bray (www.irishgolfbooks.com).

* Even Irish collectors use sterling prices as a benchmark. £1 = €1.27.

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