Harry Vardon’s 1900 US Open Winning Used Vardon Flyer Golf Ball
White glove service for one of the finest and most important golf balls in existence was absolutely necessary - flying out to accept Harry Vardon's 1900 US Open winning 'Vardon Flyer' golf ball under consignment for our June Auction Lot #1 in person. Provenance and preservation often go hand in hand, and fortunate enough for this piece of history our consignor and 5-time Ryder Cup winner Ken J. Brown knew that and excelled in both departments.
This ball's story is nothing short of miraculous. 125 years ago Harry Vardon could not be stopped in the United Kingdom, winning nearly 75% of his competitive golf tournaments and matches. Sporting goods giant Spalding took notice. In effort to achieve international dominance and fame, and promote Spalding's new 'Vardon Flyer' gutta percha golf ball and signature clubs even more so, Harry Vardon embarked on his sponsored 'Vardon Invasion' of the United States in 1900. An unprecedented hard launch of the new ball with an improved gutta percha formula was a great success on United States' biggest golf stage. Vardon won just the sixth US Open and final of the 19th century with this very 'Vardon Flyer' ball! Preceding the Beatles' 'British Invasion' Ed Sulivan show by nearly 65 years, both Vardon and The Beatles made the trip across the pond and changed American culture as we knew it. Instead of shifting the nation's en vogue music style, Vardon's Invasion played an integral role in growing the then still maturing game of golf in the United States. Eventual 6-time Open Champion Vardon was a marketing trailblazer. Frontman of golf's first Big Three carrying the moniker 'The Great Triumvirate' with JH Taylor and James Braid, Vardon would be the first of the major athletes to receive endorsements with Spalding at the turn-of-the-century.
The main act of the invasion was the 1900 US Open at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, IL, the first United States National Open that the already 3-time Open champion would contest in. Designed by C.B. Macdonald, one of the five USGA founding clubs in 1894 would host the nation's Open for the second time in four years. With 313 strokes, Vardon would outmatch England's JH Taylor by a pair of strokes to collect a $200 winner's purse. Taylor was also in the US for business, entering the US Open with his rival of the day. They were 9 and 7 strokes better than the field that week respectively. Best in the world.
Engraved on the ball's silver presentation plate is: American Championship - Wheaton 1900 - Won by H. Vardon - Score 323. The '2' in the winning cumulative score of 323 was meant to be engraved as a '1. Errors such as this one, along with misspellings of names, were common at that time and often the work of either a rushed individual or amateur engraver working on the award shortly after the event's finish. The encircled 'Vardon Flyer' verbiage is found on the opposite pole of this ball preserved with much of its original paint still intact. Vardon claimed it flew longer and farther than its contemporaries. Certainly possible, but the ball would be short lived as the Goodrich Rubber Company came out with their own design not long after making the 'Vardon Flyer' a sought after ball in itself today.
This ball's provenance story, as told by Scottish dignified elder statesman of the game Ken J. Brown, is as follows. "Nearly forty years ago on the passing of the pro at Harpenden Common Golf Club Bob Peters, the family wanted a fellow pro golfer and someone who’d appreciate it to have Harry Vardon's 1900 US Open winning 'Vardon Flyer' golf ball. I (Brown) can remember it lying around the pro shop when I first joined in the club in 1968. My strong provenance trail goes back to Vardon's time at South Herts Golf Club through me buying the ball from the estate of Bob. Harry Vardon was the pro at South Herts Golf Club in Hertfordshire and he had a number of assistant professionals one of those was Bill Peters (W.A. Peters). Bill Peters and Abe Mitchell played the exhibition match to open Harpenden Common Golf Club which about 25 miles down the road from South Herts. Bill Peters left the ball to his son Bob Peters, who later became Secretary and Professional at Harpenden Common Golf Club. It was a job that Peters would do for over thirty years. Unquestionably one of the most important pieces in not just American golf but all of the sport, a major winning ball from marketing genius that was the best in the world and responsible for growing the new game in the United States from perhaps his most important win is available to the public for the first time. We cannot verify that our ball is depicted in the rare image of Vardon shown here with some of his awards but the image does clearly depict a unique metallic labeling badge sitting atop every important ball on Vardon’s table. The incredible acquisition opportunity cannot be understated, deserving of being internationally coveted by the foremost golf museums and top-tier private collections. A signed letter of provenance from Ken Brown accompanies this lot.
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