MEMORABILIA COLLECTIBLES:The high prices fetched by several of the golf lots at the recent auction of sporting memorabilia shows the strong market for domestic golfiana, as Gary Moranreports

WHILE THERE is no doubt the United States is the most vibrant market for golf collectors and collectibles, last week's staging of the Irish Open and the auction of sporting items by Mealy's of Castlecomer prompted this column to focus on domestic golfiana for a couple of weeks.

The marquee items at the Mealy's auction were GAA-related but several of the golf lots went for well above the guide.

The top price was the €3,000 (guide €1,000-€1,500) paid by a private Irish collector for some early records of Otway Golf Club in Rathmullan, Co Donegal.

The club is among the oldest in the country and the collection included the first Minute Book of the Club, detailing proceedings of the first general meeting in March 1893 and all subsequent meetings up to the agm in 1906.

There were also financial records of the club from 1893 to 1923 and a printed volume with rules of golf and hints for running a golf club.

A copy of Early Irish Golf published in 1988 and signed by the author William H Gibson guided at €100-€150 but made €240, which was good news for Michael Neary who has a few signed copies for sale through his website irishgolfbooks.com, or from his Golfing Memories shop in Bray.

Of less historical significance from the golfing viewpoint at least but still fetching €120 were two printed advertising cards for the annual dance at Trim GC in November 1938 and the poster for Open Week at Laytown Bettystown in July 1944.

The latter might have been of particular interest to Laytown Bettystown member Paul Garvey who is one of the leading experts on Irish golf memorabilia and limits his collection to items with a domestic connection.

Like many collectors he can't explain exactly why he does it but he well remembers the first item that kicked off the habit. Garvey was flicking through a box of old books for sale in Dundrum when he came across a copy of the programme for the 1960 Canada Cup at Portmarnock which was won by Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead. He snapped it up and was bitten by the collecting bug.

In his spare time Garvey maintains the irishgolfarchive.com website which is a useful resource for anyone checking on Irish golf items.

He says that a programme from the 1951 British Open staged at Royal Portrush is among the most desirable of Irish collectibles. For whatever reason, there weren't as many printed as in other years and while the most recent (2004) edition of Gilchrist's Guide (something akin to the bible for golf collectors) prices the programme at €400, it has sold at auction for €1,600.

As usual, notable signatures add to the value and a final day programme signed by the winner, Max Faulkner, has gone for €2,630, while a Friday programme signed by Harry Bradshaw fetched €2,450 two years ago.

You are unlikely to get much change from €1,000 for a copy of the 1947 Open won by Fred Daly at Hoylake. That was the only major won by an Irish player before Pádraig Harrington's Carnoustie success last year.

The programme for the British Amateur won by Jimmy Bruen at Royal Birkdale in 1946 goes for over €200, while one of the oldest programmes to come to the market is for the Irish Amateur Open won by Harold Hilton at Royal County Down in 1900. It has sold for as much as €650.

Irish Open programmes from the first few years since the tournament's revival in 1975 are becoming scarce but are worth less than €100 and the same is true for programmes from tournaments such as the European Team Championships in Killarney (1975) and Portmarnock (1997), the Walker Cup in Portmarnock (1991) and Royal County Down (2007) and the Curtis Cup in Royal County Down (1968) and Killarney (1996). These are all nice-to-have programmes for the Irish collector but not valuable.

We will feature other Irish-related items next week. Paul Garvey is writing a biography of the unrelated Philomena Garvey, whose many honours include six Curtis Cup appearances and 15 Irish Close titles.

If you have any items of interest from photographs to newspaper cuttings or a set of the John Letters Shot Master clubs that bore Philomena's signature, please let us know.

We also welcome e-mails from readers concerning Irish and all other golf memorabilia and collectibles but cannot guarantee to provide valuations. If you have an interesting story or item, e-mail collectgolf@gmail.com