A PUTTER used by top Victorian golfer Willie Dunn snr in a famous challenge match in 1859 is expected to fetch up to £32,000 at auction next month.
The long nose putter was used by the Musselburgh-born golfer when he was beaten by the great Willie Park snr in their challenge match at Prestwick, in Ayrshire.
The match took place following a challenge issued by Park, and the golfing pioneers played for a stake of £100 -- the equivalent to £11,200 today.
The rare club, made around 1830 by famous St Andrews club maker Hugh Philp, will be sold by Bonhams in Los Angeles.
Bonhams golf specialist Kevin McGimpsey said: “This club was used by old Willie Dunn in 1859 when Willie Park snr beat him at Prestwick for £100. It was a huge amount of money and a fantastic way to supplement your income if you won.”
Born in 1821, Dunn had three top 10 finishes in the Open Championship between 1861-67.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here