Golden Goose Bullseye

[Foozle]

Crikey! They are mutating! A Goosander has just landed in the gaggle of geese!

Interesting thing about this is that there are traces of paintfill. It looks like "Goosander" was in red and "John Letters" in blue. I had assumed they were just stamped and not filled; there is no trace in the rest of the flock. 

Goosenecked. Original leather grip was taped over but sound underneath albeit the top coat came off with the tape.

Pro Fit shaft with Ferrule so late '50's?

[Foozle]

Crikey! They are mutating! A Goosander has just landed in the gaggle of geese!

Interesting thing about this is that there are traces of paintfill. It looks like "Goosander" was in red and "John Letters" in blue. I had assumed they were just stamped and not filled; there is no trace in the rest of the flock. 

Goosenecked. Original leather grip was taped over but sound underneath albeit the top coat came off with the tape.

Pro Fit shaft with Ferrule so late '50's?

[Jiggered]

3 hours ago, Foozle said:

Crikey! They are mutating! A Goosander has just landed in the gaggle of geese!

Interesting thing about this is that there are traces of paintfill. It looks like "Goosander" was in red and "John Letters" in blue. I had assumed they were just stamped and not filled; there is no trace in the rest of the flock. 

Goosenecked. Original leather grip was taped over but sound underneath albeit the top coat came off with the tape.

Pro Fit shaft with Ferrule so late '50's?

 

Nice find!

 

I've been trying to put some dates to True Temper shafts recently, as far as I can tell the Pro-Fit came out about 1959 and ran into at least the mid 1960s.

[Jiggered]

Just won myself a Pyratone shaft model the same as the one in your first post @Foozle

 

Haven't received it yet but too excited to wait so I'm posting the seller pictures, of which there are only two.

The shaft looks blacker to the brown of yours.

It's fairly battered and a bit of Pyratone missing near the ferrule by the looks of it but not too bad.

 

The grip is one of those early pistol types.

 

 

[Stephen8802]

Ooooh, nothing looks better than pyratone; you really scored with that. I love my pyratone Iron Master and would love to have one of those.

[raggal62]

On 5/5/2021 at 3:36 PM, Jiggered said:

 

Nice find!

 

I've been trying to put some dates to True Temper shafts recently, as far as I can tell the Pro-Fit came out about 1959 and ran into at least the mid 1960s.

I remember TT Pro Fit shafts being available throughout the 70's .... possibly later.

[Jiggered]

1 hour ago, raggal62 said:

I remember TT Pro Fit shafts being available throughout the 70's .... possibly later.

 

Thanks for the information.

Is that the shaft band shown below?

[raggal62]

1 hour ago, Jiggered said:

 

Thanks for the information.

Is that the shaft band shown below?

 

1 hour ago, Jiggered said:

 

Thanks for the information.

Is that the shaft band shown below?

The later labels looked different but this one can still be from the 70's.

[Foozle]

9 hours ago, Jiggered said:

Just won myself a Pyratone shaft model the same as the one in your first post @Foozle

 

Haven't received it yet but too excited to wait so I'm posting the seller pictures, of which there are only two.

The shaft looks blacker to the brown of yours.

It's fairly battered and a bit of Pyratone missing near the ferrule by the looks of it but not too bad.

 

The grip is one of those early pistol types.

 

 

I spotted this and dithered! By the time the voice in my head that said,"you need another pyratone goose and just look at that pistol grip!" convinced me that this was another goose that should fly north, it was gone!

Interested in the shaft. Mine is straight and very thin, the grip is also slim almost like a ladies or junior might be but still at 35" overall length. Yours looks stepped and more standard diameter? The pistol grip also looks more usable.

Now pleased that I did dither and it has found a good home. One word of caution, I know you have already got one - keep them apart, they have a tendancy to breed!

 

[Jiggered]

Many a time I've dithered, sometimes I've really regretted it, other times I've thought "phew, I didn't really need that".

 

I'm wondering if the shaft has the Pyratone bamboo effect rather than being stepped, hard to tell from the picture so I'll have to wait until it arrives.

 

I think this will be my last Goose as I've got four now, although there are some nice variations out there.....

[Foozle]

2 hours ago, Jiggered said:

Many a time I've dithered, sometimes I've really regretted it, other times I've thought "phew, I didn't really need that".

 

I'm wondering if the shaft has the Pyratone bamboo effect rather than being stepped, hard to tell from the picture so I'll have to wait until it arrives.

 

I think this will be my last Goose as I've got four now, although there are some nice variations out there.....

Pleased I dithered in that you jumped in and I know it is with someone who appreciates it - would have been kicking myself very hard otherwise!

I find "need" and "want" to be very different words! 😁

[Jiggered]

Just found a great piece of evidence for 1946 as the date for the Golden Goose.

I was searching for information on the Dunlop takeover of John Letters and came across this, full link given below.

 

https://aghs.meta.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Brassie200609.pdf

 

[Foozle]

12 hours ago, Jiggered said:

Just found a great piece of evidence for 1946 as the date for the Golden Goose.

I was searching for information on the Dunlop takeover of John Letters and came across this, full link given below.

 

https://aghs.meta.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Brassie200609.pdf

 

Great research Jiggered! I think that just about wraps it up and answers my original question - the Golden Goose (1946) came before the Reuters Bullseye (1947)! The 1946 date now collaborated and the 1947 by Reuters own testimony. Thanks!

[Jiggered]

23 minutes ago, Foozle said:

Great research Jiggered! I think that just about wraps it up and answers my original question - the Golden Goose (1946) came before the Reuters Bullseye (1947)! The 1946 date now collaborated and the 1947 by Reuters own testimony. Thanks!

 

I suspect this comes down to the party of British Pros who travelled over to America in the 1940s (was it for the 1947 Ryder Cup?) Fred Daly and Dai Rees were two I think.

I've heard that the British and the Americans were very interested in getting hold of each others clubs. 

Fred Daly and others returned with the MacGregor Tommy Armour blades, asked John Letters to see if he could produce something similar and the Masters Model resulted.

It's also very likely then, that some of the Letters clubs that Daly, Rees and others had with them were acquired by US professionals and a Golden Goose or two could easily have been among them.

 

Pure conjecture, but not too wild. 🙂

[Jiggered]

The Golden Goose was delivered by Hermes today in one of those "parcels" that scare the bejesus out of you when you see it.

 

 

 

 

Although it's not Hermes fault how the sender wrapped the goods and credit where credit's due, the putter looks to have come through it okay with a straight shaft and all.

 

 

As suspected, the shaft has a bamboo type effect, the colour is that slightly metallic green (which I've not captured very well in the pictures) and there's some loss of coating near the head, but thankfully no rust issues.

 

The shaft diameter at the ferrule is a smidge over 5/16" so like yours Foozle, it's pretty thin.

 

[Jiggered]

I just posted this on another site and got the following reply:

 

"I can confirm that the putter in the photo is one of the first version’s. The thin shaft and and hosel is identical to one I own that was a prototype that Fred Daly used and gave to my Grandfather ( who caddied for him in the Open) my club is currently on lone to the Dutch golf museum."

[Foozle]

51 minutes ago, Jiggered said:

I just posted this on another site and got the following reply:

 

"I can confirm that the putter in the photo is one of the first version’s. The thin shaft and and hosel is identical to one I own that was a prototype that Fred Daly used and gave to my Grandfather ( who caddied for him in the Open) my club is currently on lone to the Dutch golf museum."

Great information!

I have just measured the shaft on mine. It is also 5/16" at the ferrule and only reaches 3/8" as it enters the grip! The grip diameter is 1/2" at the bottom and 3/4" approaching the butt! No pistol end on mine just a plain plug with brass pins.

The ferrule on mine is red/white/red.

Very pleased yours survived its precarious transit!

Edited May 17, 2021 by Foozle
Add pictures

[Jiggered]

Mine has the exact same screw and two pins on the end cap, must be the original.

 

 

 

[Jiggered]

Another Golden Goose just popped up on ebay that I'd not seen before.

It's a promotional club for Arnold Clark, the Scottish Motor Dealer Group.

It has the same shaft band as one of the ones I posted earlier, the pictures below are from the ebay post.

Interesting that it has the JL logo and 1918 founding date.

 

(I couldn't help myself and bought it after only a short amount of hesitation!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

"a short amount of hesitation"...was that measured in seconds or minutes?😄

[Jiggered]

7 hours ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

"a short amount of hesitation"...was that measured in seconds or minutes?😄

 

I'm saying nothing. 😁

 

It turned up yesterday and will be in the bag for tomorrow's round, although it's going to be a frosty start so how realistic a test it'll be I don't know.

Teeing off at 8.45 when the predicted temperature will be -2'C (28.5'F) so the greens will be frozen for sure. ⛄

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

So you'll be using the putter more as a curling stick, then?

[Jiggered]

17 hours ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

So you'll be using the putter more as a curling stick, then?

 Using any type of stick would probably have been better than how I played today, one of the worst scoring rounds I can remember!

[Jiggered]

I spotted another early Golden Goose on ebay the other day and it was delivered this morning.

 

Pretty much the same head as my other one (apart from some subtle differences as below) but this one has a brown shaft rather than the green of my other. The head is generally in good condition apart from where the patina has been scraped away a bit on the striking side.

The subtle differences are:

The green shafted one has a slightly shorter hosel and the head is slightly thicker, it also has more of a copper colour but whether this is due to the actual metal or just the way it's aged I don't know.  The cleek marks are not quite the same either.  I suspect that the green shafted one might be the earlier as the cleek mark on the brown shafted one is more like that on the flanged blade, which has a chrome shaft.

Some pictures below.

 

The grip looks original and has the two nails as per the green shafted one but instead of a screw it has a red disc in the centre. The shaft length is a little shorter than the green shaft and the grip is standard rather than a pistol type, and a little frayed at the end!

 

Also shown are pictures of the rest of my Geese along with an early flanged blade also by John Letters which has the same Swilken Bridge cleek mark, it’s interesting how the length of the head increases on the newer models.

(The holes drilled into the sole of one are I assume a “modification” by a previous owner.)