Lot # 14: Putter Made For Tommy Armour by Walter Hagen, ex FX Fry

Starting Bid: $300.00

Bids: 6 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "Spring 2021",
which ran from 3/3/2021 12:00 PM to
3/20/2021 8:00 PM



This historic putter was "'Made For' Tommy Armour" by the Walter Hagen Golf Company and is so stamped on the back of the stainless steel blade. Tommy Armour was never under contract with the Hagen Company (Walter Hagen did not need or want anybody else to endorse his clubs) but Armour and Hagen were close friends.  It was Hagen who gave Armour a job as secretary of the Westchester-Biltmore club shortly after Armour won the 1920 French Amateur and immigrated from Scotland to the US.

Because this club was made for Armour, no doubt he at least tried it and possibly used it for a while.  Because the head of this putter is marked with Hagen's 1928 registered trademark signature and LA Young triangle, Hagen made this putter in 1928 or shortly thereafter.

Tommy Armour grew to became a giant in the game of golf.  He won the 1927 US Open, 1930 PGA, 1931 British Open, three Canadian Opens, the 1929 Western Open, and a total of 25 PGA Tour wins.   "The Silver Scot," as he was eventually nicknamed, was endorsing clubs and balls for the Great Lake Golf Company by 1927 and continued to do so for a number of years. By 1935 he was endorsing for Worthington. A couple of years later, MacGregor hired him and the first MacGregor-made Tommy Armour clubs were sold in 1938.  This proved to be a long relationship as MacGregor offered a variety of Tommy Armour woods, irons, and putters for the next 30 years. Following Armour's death in 1968, many MacGregor Tommy Armour clubs gained in collectibility/value for a number of years. Some of his designs and endorsed models were considered by a number of golfer, professional and otherwise, to be among that best clubs money could by for approximately two decades after his death. Armour was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1976.

This putter, with its original shaft and grip, was collected by Fred X Fry and bares Fry's inventory label on its shaft.  According to the inventory sheet, Fry received the club somewhere "around 1935" from his brother Earl, who had "used it for a while."  Fry does not record where his brother obtained the club.  The way the auctioneer sees it, this Walter Hagen company Tommy Armour putter has been in the hands of two of the greatest golfers ever.

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