Britain’s coolest pro shop
Gary Brett has turned his shop into a fascinating homage to the game
He drives a 1985 Ford Capri and plays golf carrying a 1970s vintage Spalding golf bag with a Ray Cook putter inside. But what makes Gary Brett so different from every other PGA Pro is that his love of retro memorabilia has turned a small pro shop in south east London into a mini golf museum.
Visitors and members may come to Eltham Warren Golf Club to play a nine-hole course, but they leave having experienced so much more. Open the door to the pro shop and you’re immediately confronted by dozens of shelves and cabinets lined with retro bags, balls and novelty items. Look up and you’ll find around 100 golf mugs hanging from the ceiling.
Brett admits it looks like he’s running a “side business”. But the truth, he says, is that his “love of collecting memorabilia has turned into a disease”.
When did the obsession start? I’ve always been into retro things, whether it’s cars or clothes. I even collect old phone booths and traffic lights! I started collecting hickory golf clubs in the late 90s. Unfortunately, I sold a lot of them. As a pro, the only way of making money sometimes, especially in the winter, is to sell your
assets. I also sold a lot of golf bags and I regret it now. I’m trying to buy them all back.
How diverse is your collection now? I’ve got everything from cocktail shakers and figurines to old rule books from the 40s and mechanical toys. It’s anything golf related, including golf ball bottle openers and corkscrews. I’ve even got the typical Wrigley’s Spearmint tin sign with pictures of cartoon golfers on the wall. Personally, I like the golf ball ice buckets, mainly because I have a bar at home.
Do you know how much it’s all worth? It’s hard to put a value on it. A lot of my stuff is from the 50s, 60s and 70s. That doesn’t necessarily make it overly valuable. My idea of golf retro memorabilia is a telephone in the shape of a golf bag. It’s real 70s tack to be honest, but people still like to look at it and tend to think ‘Christ, I forgot how bad they were’. It’s not a collection of real value. It’s a collection to make people smile.
But the pro-shop is not just confined to showing off memorabilia… I’ve also got a mini workshop, which I use to engrave and customise all the putters. All the polishing and grinding is done outside via an extension lead because of all the dust. It’s a good way to pass the time in between running the pro shop and giving lessons. If I’m doing up an old bullseye putter, it can take up to six hours to remove every dent, re-mill the face, polish it and personalise it.
Is there scope to build a bigger collection? I am going to turn the whole shop into a museum, where you can just pay your green fee, book a lesson, grab a drink and look around. I’ve already got between 200 and 300 golf balls in wrappers on display in a cabinet. There’s quite a bit of money tied up in there, at least a couple of grand. The funny thing is juniors think they’re chocolates in packets! I’ve now got 1,500 balls on the wall from all around the world.