Amateur golfer amasses 251-club collection thought to be worth over £10,000

AN amateur golfer has amassed a collection of golf clubs worth over £10,000.

Steve Saunders, 56, a golfer and 12-handicapper from Nottingham, hadn’t given a second thought to the value of a range of golfs clubs that spans almost forty years.

Sprawled across the garage of his East Midland home, Steve has been retiring his old clubs to the confines of his garage for decades, replacing them nearly every year with the latest models of the day.

The collection was uncovered by Steve’s local American Golf store after he took clubs to the shop seeking a valuation after being ordered by his wife to clear out the garage after years of asking.

The experts at American Golf estimated his collection has a worth of a staggering £10,150. Clubs that were valued ranged from old, classic woods from the 1980’s to drivers and putters only a couple of years old.

The haul included 32 drivers, 142 irons, 36 wedges and 41 putters.

Steve said: “My wife has always told me I’m a bit of a hoarder though I never thought there was so much money sitting in my garage gathering dust. Some of the older clubs I’m undecided on selling as they hold some sentimental value.

“I’ll definitely be heading back into American Golf to trade in a few of the clubs so I can get the new 2018 models for this season. What’s left, I’ll probably sell.

“I’ve been playing golf for many years and have always had a thing for the technology of the latest clubs, so have never been able to stop myself buying more, year after year.

“I haven’t decided what I’d do with the money, I might treat myself to a golf holiday but I’m not sure how that’d go down! I’ll definitely be taking my wife away, after all, if it wasn’t for her, they’d all still be in the garage cluttering up the place.”

Barry Lilley, store manager at American Golf Nottingham: “Though we don’t usually do valuations for older clubs, we were intrigued at the scale of Steve’s collection so wanted to find out more.

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“We have a lot of customers bringing in their preowned clubs to take advantage of our Double Value Trade In deal which gives gofers to opportunity to trade up to new models, but nothing on Steve’s scale.

“I’ve worked in the industry a long time and have never seen anything like it. There were a lot of bewildered faces when Steve pulled up with a van packed full of old clubs. We’re looking forward to seeing him back in store to pick up the latest models.”

• American Golf’s Double Value Trade-In deal is available in store gives golfers the chance to get twice the value of old clubs if they trade up for new models.