Top Collectibles

DAMON HACK

May 28, 2012

Around 2:40 a.m. on May 16 a lone burglar with an ax broke into the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J., smashed open display cases and ran off with two items—a U.S. Amateur trophy created in 1926 and a replica of Ben Hogan's Hickok Belt, which he won for being the nation's top professional athlete in 1953. The thief was obviously not a collector. The Amateur trophy and Hogan's belt are not highly valued, but some of the artifacts he passed over are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. SIGOLF+ asked Jeff Ellis, owner of Jeff Ellis Golf Collectibles and author of The Clubmaker's Art: Antique Golf Clubs and Their History, to list his top golf artifacts and estimate their values.