Bobby Jones' Personal Used Desk Lighter Gifted to HOF Writer Charles Price - W/Provenance- GWAA 1st Prize For Writing

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 4/14/2019

Bobby Jones' Personal Used Desk Lighter Gifted to HOF Writer Charles Price - W/Provenance - GWAA 1st Prize For Writing

From use by Bobby Jones at his Atlanta law office to Augusta National, eventually gifted to esteemed golf writer/historian and confidant Charles Price.

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In 2005 this elegant leather desk lighter was on display at the World Golf Hall of Fame as it was part of a special 75th anniversary exhibit celebrating Jones' Grand Slam. Mr. Price rarely wrote about his relationship with Bobby Jones but in 1991 Price a columnist for Golf Digest wrote the award winning column, “The Last Days of Bobby Jones”. The GWAA presented him with the column engraved onto a first place plaque. The column documents his special relationship with Bobby Jones and tells the tale of the leather bound desk lighter. As a fond reminder of their friendship the lighter sat proudly upon Mr. Prices roll top desk where he authored his books and wrote his columns. Now the leather desk lighter and plaque awaits a fortunate bidder who will provide these cherished keepsakes a well deserved place of honor. THE STORY Mr. Jones later in life was confined to a wheelchair his arms atrophied his ankles swollen by body fluids and fingers gnarled. This was a man who could once effortlessly drive a golf ball a sixth of a mile. He suffered from Syringomyelia a form of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Charles had long known what was wrong with him, but Bob asked Charles not to write about it while he was still alive. “People think I’ve got arthritis,” Jones said. “Let’s let it go at that.” During the Masters Bobs cottage overlooked the tenth tee. At this point Jones was only able to see the tournament on TV in his cottage and through the observations of Mr. Price. Charles acted as his legman. He would bring younger players and foreign writers to Jones and over lunch share his thoughts about the tournament. Bobby Jones smoked more than two packs a day and sometimes in chain fashion. Each cigarette in a holder so he would not accidentally burn himself set in neat rows on a card table. The elegant desk lighter, covered in leather, sat ready. All Jones had to do was push down a lever that any child could. So, with as much nonchalance as Mr. Price could devise, he would pull a cigarette of his own, thereby giving Charles the excuse to light Bobs. This would go on for quite sometime. Bobby Jones died in December 1971. Mr. Price was abroad at the time of Bobby’s death. When Charles returned home there was a package from Bob’s office for him. In it was that elegant leather desk lighter that Charles had lit so many of Bob’s cigarettes trying to circumvent his pride. There was a note from Bob, typed by his secretary Mrs. Marshall but signed by Bob in his scrawl. “You weren’t fooling me a bit,” it said.

The Charles Price Collection
If golf had a Renaissance man, surely it was Charles Price. For nearly 50 years he touched the golf community with his flair for writing, a Hemingway of the fairways. Over that span his stylish writing was combined with an intimate players knowledge of the game based on his 1947-48 appearances as an amateur on the PGA Tour. This provided Price with a unique skill set to relate to players not found among his fellow golf scribes. He was highly respected by Bobby Jones as a writer and friend with the two visiting often for one-on-one conversations. He became a historian of the game through his time living with Walter Hagen, traveling with Gene Sarazen on "Shell's Wonderful World of Golf", competing with Ben Hogan & Sam Snead and writing about the careers of Jack Nicklaus & Arnold Palmer since they were college age players . Among his 17 books authored, co-authored or contributed to were "A Golf Story" (about The Masters, Augusta National and Jones); along with "The World of Golf: A Panorama of Six Centuries of the Game's History", and "Golfer-at-Large" all considered classics in golf literature.

The founding editor of GOLF Magazine in 1958, Price formulated the model for the game's contemporary magazines, and through columns for "Golf" and later "Golf Digest" where he spent his last dozen years his thoughtful analysis and retrospection presented the game.

He was the first golf director at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island and is largely responsible for establishing the Heritage Classic in 1969, one of the most prestigious events on the PGA Tour. These accomplishments led to countless far ranging awards in the golfing community which included 1988 recognition as one of the 100 Heroes of the First Century of Golf, the 1987 Donald Ross Award from Golf Course Architects and in 1985 he was elected by the Golf Writers Association of America to receive its tenth Memorial Gold Journalism Award, sponsored by Jack Nicklaus. His first place writing competition awards from the G.W.A.A. are too voluminous to list in this short space. We at The Golf Auction would like to thank Charles Price's widow Laurie Rider for entrusting us with Charley's life-long golf acquisitions, and are appreciative of her desire to allow the collecting public to share in his love of the game.