There are golf collectibles that look good on a wall, and then there are pieces that carry the actual weight of history.
The difference matters.
In this week’s Collectables blog post on The Golf Heritage Society website, my focus was on a period Associated Press photograph from GHS President George Petro’s collection: Babe Didrikson Zaharias, smiling with flowers and a trophy after her 1946 U.S. Women’s Amateur victory at Southern Hills. On the back, old AP captioning, handwritten identification, and the kind of newsroom wear that tells you this wasn’t made to be precious, it was made to be used, filed and remembered.
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That’s exactly the kind of item that separates serious golf collecting from simple decoration.
The timing of the column is no accident. This week’s Fortinet Founders Cup at Sharon Heights honors the 13 women who founded the LPGA in 1950. Zaharias was one of them. Which means this photograph, taken four years before the founding, captures a founder before the founding. It preserves a championship moment from the era when women’s golf was still fighting for a stable footing, mainstream respect and consistent institutional support.
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That’s a powerful thread to pull through history.
You can read the full column, complete with images of both sides of the photograph, at The Golf Heritage Society website.
For collectors who want to go deeper than signed flags and logo balls, my weekly Collectables blog post often offers a reminder that the best pieces aren’t always the flashiest or most expensive. Sometimes they’re the ones that connect you directly to the moments and people who built the game we watch today.
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You can find out more about the Golf Heritage Society, the leader in golf collectibles and celebrating and preserving the history of the game, athttps://www.golfheritage.org/
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 R.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.
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Mar 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the Golf section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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