1957 US Open at Inverness Ceramic Tee Marker w/Employee Badge - Nicklaus PGA Tour Debut
From the estate of 30 year Superintendant at Inverness Wilbert C Waters. The rounded ceramic marker reads in green on white 'Hole No.03 175 Yard Par 3' Ceramic Marker. That yardage has been confirmed by an official scorecard in which we sold previously, and slowing down the graining black and white video of the tournament highlights online shows that this is the shape and color in which they used that week - corroborating impeccable provenance story.
"Everything but Booby Traps Will Face National Open Golfers When They Play Inverness" Toledo-local newspaper The Blade read on June 10, 1957 for their US Open preview. It details that he added 200 tons of sand to the course for the tournament. "One of the finest greens superintendents in the business" managed a crew of 11 at Inverness, arriving at Inverness in 1951 after two decades at Highland Meadows where he would work for 30 years.
Wilbert C. Waters out of Toledo, Ohio who passed away in 1999 and his estate would have a sale at his house shortly thereafter. This tee marker was on a garage shelf next to car cleaning supplies at the estate sale of Walter, where our consignor who caddied at Inverness from 1973 to 1974 obtained it. Also part of the abnormal estate sale, a bronze Inverness clock fashioned as a trophy/ award from the club in which Inverness themselves retrieved it just prior to the sale where it remains to this day.
The 1957 US Open was won by Dick Mayer as he defeated defending champion Cary Middlecoff in an 18-hole playoff to claim his only major. While he would miss the cut after shooting consecutive rounds of 80, significantly the 1957 Open was also the PGA debut of amateur Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus went on to win a record-tying four U.S. Open tournaments. Also included from that sale is a 1957 US Open at Inverness Employee Badge #108 and the stake in which this was initially secured in the ground on hole #3 tee with. .
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