This is a wonderful collection of 15 Goat medallions, 1 cardboard Goat medallion, and 1 cardboard Kid medallion used to play Goat Tournaments.  The 17 medallions offered here in this lot were from a wide variety of golf clubs.  Examples include: The Country Club Brookline, Mass.; Rumson Country Club New Jersey; The Country Club of Rochester; The Western Hills Country Club of Cincinnatti, Ohio; etc.  Some of thee medals are engraved with the players initials or name.  Others are marked 1919, and the two cardboard medallions are marked 1937.

The Goat Tournament originated at Nassau Country Club on Long Island NY around 1909. The first goat token was made by Tiffany who was a member of the club. Over the years (until about 1950) goat tournaments took place at various clubs across the country. The purpose of this event was to make members play with every member of a given club and to prevent people from only playing with the same guys every weekend.

Here is how it was done:

 Each member of the club is given an inexpensive token in the form of a goat, with or without his name or sometimes a number on the reverse side. Any player may then challenge another to a handicap match, the winner to get the loser's "goat." After a player has lost his "goat," he may continue to challenge in an attempt to get another player's "goat." However, if he should lose and not have a "goat" with which to pay, he must purchase a "kid" for a nominal amount from the golf professional and give up the "kid." The "kid" is convertible into merchandise in the golf professional' s shop. Only players with "goats" in their possession may be challenged, and players usually are not required to accept a challenge more often than once a week. Records of "goat" play and the current location of each "goat" usually are posted so that a player may know who has his "goat" and who has the most "goats." The winner is the player holding the most "goats" at the end of the season.