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Ben Sayers as a company was founded in 1873 and is thought to be the oldest golf company in the world.
Apart from making clubs and carrying out repairs, Ben Sayers first venture was in making golf balls. Ben’s first shop was a lean-to shed adjacent to the new 18th tee at North Berwick Golf Club. It was from this shed that he started to acquire a
reputation both as a player and teacher.
Over the years he played in many famous golf matches. Such matches attracted terrific interest and took place at North Berwick Golf Club, St Andrews Golf Club, Old Prestwick Golf Club and other famous courses of that time. The matches were watched by crowds of 2,000 to 3,000 and fairly high stakes were played for.
He played in the American open of 1914. He played in 23 British Open Championships from 1880 to 1923. In the British Open he came close to winning on several occasions, but never won the coveted title.
His fame grew both as a teacher and a player and famous politicians and members of Royal Families were numbered amongst his pupils and acquaintances. He was presented to King Edward the VII. He received a special presentation from the Duke of York who later became King George V. The Czar of Russia sent one of his sons – Grand Duke Michael – to North Berwick to receive lessons from Ben.
In 1913 Ben Sayers Jnr joined the business. Young Ben was a very good golfer and played in many matches with his father. He played for Scotland and on one famous occasion he played with his father in an international match against England.
By 1934 the demand for the Ben Sayers brand was growing and so the business moved to a new factory in North Berwick. From this factory Ben Sayers established a worldwide name for custom made quality clubs. Ben Sayers exported clubs to America, South Africa and Japan.
By the mid 1970’s, production had risen from a few hundred clubs per week to 5,000 per week. Ben played his last open at 67 years old and in the following year, his final round of golf.
The Ben Sayers & Son factory has been responsible for creating several revolutionary pieces of golfing equipment, from gutta-percha balls and the “Benny” putter (the first to have a square-edged handgrip) to, in later years, the first set of carbon-shafted clubs and a specially commissioned putter for Jack Nicklaus. Ben Sayers Jnr. also designed the first “oversized” driver.
Today Ben Sayers manufactures a range of high quality clubs, golf bags and accessories and supplies them all over the world wherever a game of golf is being played you can guarantee a Ben Sayers club will be present.
How Ben would have enjoyed that, and the fact 143 years after he first got to work on those hickory shafted clubs, his name is greater than ever in golf.
