How One Typed Page Helped Build the Golf Heritage Society

The first issue fit on one typewritten page. Joseph S.F. Murdoch prepared it, mailed it to people who shared his interest in golf books, old clubs and the paper trail of the game, then waited for the exchange to continue. In 1970, the reply was part of the system.

There was no collectors’ forum to search and no online auction archive to consult. A club maker’s stamp, an inscription inside a book or the wording on a tournament program might open a line of inquiry, but it still needed a person on the other end. Someone had to recognize the clue, write back and add what he or she knew.

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That one-page mailing is more than an origin story for the publication now called The Golf. It explains how the Golf Heritage Society has lasted. The format has changed, the membership has widened and the annual gathering has traveled across the country, but the essential transaction remains the same: One person finds something, another supplies context, and a piece of golf history becomes more useful than it was before.

Golf Heritage Society Milestones

• 1968: Joseph S.F. Murdoch publishes The Library of Golf.

• 1970: Murdoch and Robert “Bob” Kuntz found the Golf Collectors Society with 25 founding members.

• 1972: Seventeen members and their spouses attend the first annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

• October 2018: The Golf Collectors Society becomes the Golf Heritage Society.

• 2026: The organization holds its 55th National Convention in New York’s Southern Tier.

Murdoch and Kuntz Needed a Way to Connect

Murdoch and Robert “Bob” Kuntz founded the Golf Collectors Society in 1970 with 25 founding members. The Society’s history describes two collectors who enjoyed talking shop and exchanging knowledge about books, clubs and memorabilia. Murdoch also brought the discipline of a bibliographer. His 1968 book, The Library of Golf, helped collectors and researchers identify important works and editions long before a few typed words could summon a library catalog on a screen.

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The new organization gave scattered enthusiasts a structure for correspondence. That mattered because collecting was never only a hunt for possessions. A wooden-shafted club without its maker, date or line of ownership loses much of what makes it historically valuable. The same is true of a photograph with unidentified faces or a tournament program detached from the event it recorded.

A club or book rarely came with its full history attached. Members compared maker’s marks, inscriptions and other clues, then shared what they could confirm. The Society became valuable because no one collector had all the answers.

Louisville Put the Work in One Room

Seventeen members and their spouses attended the first annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1972. They also began a hickory golf event that continues as the Golf Heritage Society National Championship. From the start, the gathering placed research, collecting and playing beside one another.

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That combination gave the Society a personality a mailed bulletin could not create by itself. Members brought material to trade, research to present and questions that were easier to solve in a room filled with specialists. The golf mattered, too. A pre-1935 club makes a different kind of sense after a player has tried to flight a ball with it.

The annual meetings moved from New Jersey and Ohio to California, Florida, Texas and other stops around the country. The convention was not held in 2020, then resumed in Pittsburgh in 2021. GHS identifies the 2026 gathering in New York’s Southern Tier as its 55th National Convention. Its route across the map also charts a network of friendships built around the game’s past.

The Golf Became the Society’s Memory

Murdoch’s one-page mailing grew into The Bulletin. Under a succession of editors, it became a 52-page color quarterly devoted to golf history, collection research and Society news. The GHS history page counted 215 editions when its summary was prepared.

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The number tells only part of the story. Members used the journal to document what they knew, describe what they owned and put unanswered questions in front of other collectors. The journal kept those details in circulation long after a meeting or trade-table conversation ended.

In late 2018, the journal was renamed The Golf, using an older expression for the game. The change arrived during a larger shift for the organization. In October of that year, the Golf Collectors Society formally became the Golf Heritage Society.

What Changed in 2018

The organization: The Golf Collectors Society formally became the Golf Heritage Society in October.

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The publication: The Bulletin took the name The Golf later that year.

The scope: Collecting remained central, while the broader identity made room for research, publishing, architecture, art, photography, oral history and hickory play.

The Name Finally Matched the Work

By 2018, the Society’s interests had outgrown the word “collectors.” Members still cared about books, clubs and memorabilia, but their work also reached course architecture, art, tournament records, photography, oral history and hickory golf. Golf Heritage Society better described the ground they were already covering.

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People come to that work from different directions. One may be following a name found in an old newspaper. Another may be studying a missing bunker, a tournament badge or the story behind a postcard. Each search eventually reaches the same point: identifying what remains and proving where it belongs.

The Society’s stated mission now emphasizes appreciation for golf history and traditions while fostering friendship among golfers, writers, historians and collectors around the world. Its objectives include publishing research, holding national and regional meetings, supporting hickory play, working with youth organizations and building partnerships with other groups interested in the game’s past.

Finding an object does not finish the work. Its history still has to be checked, documented and kept with it. That research may support a museum display, book, article or presentation. It can also be as simple as a careful label inside a private collection that keeps the object’s story from being lost again.

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GHS Came to Binghamton for Convention No. 55

For its 55th National Convention, GHS came to the Binghamton area. The schedule included golf at Binghamton Country Club and En-Joie Golf Club, educational sessions and the annual trade show. Binghamton has preserved correspondence and a contract documenting A.W. Tillinghast’s role at the club. En-Joie’s history spans nearly a century of public golf and professional tournaments.

Members could study the week’s history simply by looking around. At Binghamton, Tillinghast’s correspondence helps explain the course before them. En-Joie carries its public-golf and professional-tournament past across the same ground they played.

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Much has changed since Murdoch sent that first page and 17 members traveled to Louisville. A color quarterly, digital archives, educational programs and a national convention now carry the exchange farther. Yet the Society still depends on the act that made the first mailing useful. Someone shows what he or she has found, and someone else helps complete the story.

PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on RG.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.

Related: The Golf Heritage Society Gave Me a Reason to Return to En-Joie

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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Sep 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the Golf section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.