This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/17/2024
Jack Nicklaus' Personal Game Used Macgregor VIP Irons (2,3,4,6,7,9) & Jack Nicklaus Signed Letter
We have been begging the winning bidder on these irons from our January 2017 auction to relist these impressive irons and here they are for your bidding pleasure. Jack Nicklaus game used clubs are in serious demand these days with record breaking results almost at every offering.
Presented here is a set of Jack Nicklaus’ 1970 Volvo Open used MacGregor irons. These six MacGregor VIP Split Sole Irons number 2,3,4,6,7, & 9 come with a letter of provenance from Mathias Fock, Nicklaus’ personal chauffeur at the 1970 Volvo Open, who shared a mutual friendship with Swede, Sven Tumba.
The history on these irons begins a few months after The Open in July 1970, when Nicklaus traveled to Stockholm, Sweden; invited by his good friend Sven Tumba to play the first Volvo Open, later known as the Scandinavian Masters. Tumba was one of Sweden's most prominent ice hockey players of the 1950s and 1960s. After his retirement from ice hockey, he became an accomplished golfer, a golf course designer as well as an ambassador to the game of golf.
The Volvo Open was played on Royal grounds, at Drottningholm golf course just outside Stockholm. Mathias Fock was a young 18 year old working on this occasion as Jack Nicklaus’s private chauffeur. Every morning Jack was picked up at the Grand Hotel in the city center of Stockholm and brought to the course by Fock, and every afternoon he took him back to the hotel. On the final day, after Jack finished second by a single stroke, Nicklaus was invited to a function with the Royal family and Fock drove him to this event as well. Unfortunately for Mathias Fock, he was pulled over for speeding because Jack was running late for the gathering.
The next day Sven Tumba came to Mathias with an arm full of Jack Nicklaus MacGregor VIP clubs.
Sven said to Mathias:
”Jack, wants you to have these clubs, as a small compensation for the incident yesterday (Jack insisted that Mathias “step on it” as they were running late to the Royal gathering). Tumba said to Fock, these are Jack’s clubs, “be nice to them.”
Mr. Fock was pleased and excited though he didn’t grasp the entirety of the gift he had been given.
Sometime later, a reporter from the Swedish "Svensk Golf" interviewed Jack on the story of Mathias Fock and how he had Jack Nicklaus’ personal clubs since 1970. When about it Jack Nicklaus said, ”Oh yeah, now that you tell me… So that’s where the clubs ended up," Jack Nicklaus said, with a smile.
Accompanying the clubs is a reference letter confirming Jack's participation in the tournament, a photo of the clubs in Jack’s bag at the Volvo Open, a letter of provenance from Mathias Fock and a signed letter from Jack Nicklaus in reference to the clubs. These iron show great use - the sweet spots are all Nicklaus!
35 1/2" - 38"
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