Future of Massive Golf Collection Uncertain as Library Closes

For the duffers who straggled in from the links Saturday, it was one last chance to enjoy their version of the Library of Congress.

Ensconced in the Industry Hills Sheraton Resort is one of two libraries nationwide dedicated to the history and culture of that most passionate of pastimes, one that for millions borders on religion: golf.

By the end of today, the Ralph W. Miller Golf Library will shut its doors, capping a run that began in 1978. Its two librarians will be laid off and its Honduran mahogany space vacated.

Going with it will be 5,000 volumes dedicated to the game. Among the tomes is an original 1597 edition of “Laws and Actes of Parliament,” which contains one of the earliest mentions of golf--a 1400s Scottish law outlawing the game because it was distracting people from practicing their archery skills.

“It’s a terrible loss,” said Daniel Wexler, author of “The Missing Links.”

The library is being booted from its digs to make way for a renovation of the resort, part of a deal to lease the hotel and convention center--which has two championship golf courses--to Majestic Realty, owned by developer Edward Roski Jr.

“The library collection will be kept intact,” said resort General Manager Pat O’Brien. But just where and when it will be reassembled has yet to be decided, he acknowledged. For now the collection will be placed in storage, he said.

But Marge Dewey, the library’s manager and caretaker, worries that the low-key shrine to golf’s history will be out of the public realm indefinitely.

“We have people who love the game come from all over the world to just thumb through these books,” said Dewey, who has overseen the collection for nearly 15 years. “It will be so sad to shut the doors the last time.”

The closure is a real double bogey, say golf history buffs, who were among the dozen or so regulars who have visited the warm, plush library with leather chairs each day.

“This could be the finest public collection of golf history in the world,” said Geoff D. Shackelford, an author who mined the library’s stacks while researching five books on various aspects of the game. “These books, pictures and archives are worth several million dollars.”

According to Shackelford, considered one of golf’s leading historians, the only other library dedicated exclusively to the game is run by the United States Golf Assn. Library at its headquarters in Far Hills, N.J. That makes the Miller library’s closing all the more devastating for fans west of the Mississippi, he said.

Shackelford and others fear the collection could be sold to a private collector. They have contacted various athletic foundations, hoping to persuade them to buy the books and ensure the collection’s future.

Dewey said she’s received inquiries from various groups based just on the word-of-mouth about the closure.

“It’s an absolutely invaluable reference resource, both in terms of the collection and the librarians,” said Jim Arn, a librarian who lives in Irvine.

Arn, comfortably perched on one of the library’s leather-bound chairs Saturday, said his visits to the library over the years helped him win the USGA’s golf history contest.

Just a five iron away from the resort’s first tee, visitors to the library, on the hotel’s first floor, enter through a lobby lined with display cases with items such as President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s clubs and the plus-fours of legendary female golfer Babe Didrikson-Zaharias.

Not to be missed: the much-maligned putter of President Gerald Ford.

In glass display cases, sitting in the middle of the library and trimmed with wood from the Central American rain forest, sits an array of golf balls, some of which look more like stones. They include an 1800s gutta percha ball and “The Bramble,” circa 1878.

Bookcases along the walls hold hundreds of autographed copies of rare books, including one signed by Old Tom Morris, the caretaker of St. Andrews in Scotland and the man venerated by many as the “grand old man of golf.”

There is even one of the half-dozen copies of the first piece of literature believed to be dedicated solely to golf: “The Goff,” a 22-page poem published in 1743 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In a back room, available to experts only, are rare event programs, old golf championship movies and score cards.

“The USGA would love to get its hands on some of these films,” Shackelford said. “I find something new every time I visit.”

The library is named for Los Angeles attorney Ralph W. Miller, whose passion for the greens and fairways led him to amass the collection before his death in 1974. He so loved the game that he even clipped golf-related articles from hundreds of publications for the archives.

“Few people today could afford to acquire such a collection,” Dewey said.

When Miller died, his family sold the collection to the City of Industry. In 1978, the library settled in the resort, which was managed at the time by Miller’s friend Bill Bryant. Bryant’s wife, Jean, who hired Dewey, managed the library until her death in 1990.

“I grew to love the game,” explains Dewey, who eagerly helps authors, youngsters and even Hollywood costume designers learn about the game.