2019 November Golf Memorabilia Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/24/2019
Augusta Nat. Letterhead Dated 1935 - G.M. PJA Berckmans to Course Engineer w/Significant Turf Content
This revealing letter lends incite to the infancy of the Augusta National Country Club as they struggled with paying the bills and supplying the course with the most rudimentary of items such as fertilizer. Crafted on the earliest of A.N.G.C. letterhead the missive is directed from the first club General Manager P.J.A. Berckmans (known as Allie, son of Prosper whose nursery property would become the grounds of the A.N.G.C.) to Wendell Miller who in 1931 was hired as the construction engineer to take the visions of Dr. Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones into reality. Miller was recognized as the top agricultural engineer of the day by acclaimed course architects such as C.B. Macdonald and MacKenzie, who he often worked in tandem on course projects with. The gist of the first part of this four paragraph letter is Berckmans club response why Miller's company has not been paid for there work with hope that this shortcoming will soon be overcome.
In subsequent paragraphs Berckman delves into many turf issues of the day including the grass on fairways at A.N.G.C. , how fertilizer was obtained on a donation and that funds do not exist for additional fertilizer. Berckman closes out his thoughts with a paragraph on North Carolina's Linville Golf Course ( Top 100 U.S. Course, 10 years old at the time, a Donald Ross design) discussing greens and fertilizer recommendations made to site developer and financier (Hugh) MacRae. Standard compacting folds from mailing envelope appear with other creases. Reverse of letter displays pencil calculations and one word 'coward'. This lot comes to The Golf Auction as fresh material to the golf collecting world after 84 years in the Miller family. James Spence Authentication (JSA) has reviewed the scarce signature of The National's first general manager P.J.A. Berckman and after comparison to his other known penmanship their auction letter of authenticity comes with this lot.
AUCTION CLOSING RULES:
This auction will end at 9:00pm EST Sunday, November 24th with EXTENDED BIDDING to follow. All items that have received multiple bids in the auction will remain open until no items have received a bid within a 15 minute time period (at 10pm EST, the countdown clock will be adjusted to a 5 minute interval). Place your bids now!
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3. All lots that are active in extended bidding will close at the same time, and those with only ONE or NO BIDS will close at 9pm EST
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