This scarce card and is one in a series of 50 cards issued
in Canada by the IMPERIAL
Tobacco Company of Canada. One
card was inserted with their packs
of Cigarettes during 1925. The Series
is entitled “How To Play Golf” and
is listed in Burdicks American Card Catalogue
as series C17. Each
card depicts a photo image of a Golf Personality of the time depicting an
instructional lesson on an aspect of the game.
The back features a lesson
relating to the image on the front with other instructional pointers about the game. The particular one is #38 from the series and
Features the Golfer George Duncan on the front. Here is some information about Duncan that I
found on the internet:. George Duncan (16 September 1883 – 15 January
1964) was a Scottish professional golfer. He was also a golf course designer.
His much sought-after professional teaching and swing analysis skills lead to
him being referred to as "the pro's pro." He won the 1920 Open
Championship. Duncan was born in
Methlick, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on 16 September 1883. He was first apprenticed as a carpenter and
rejected a chance to become a professional footballer at Aberdeen to become a
golf professional. Duncan was well known
for his fast pace of play; he would simply walk to his ball, drop his limbs
into his stance immediately, and hit the ball. If he ever studied the line and
shape of his shot, he had done it before he reached his ball, for there was no
pause when he got to it. As for practice swings, he regarded them as totally unnecessary
and barely legal – close to practising on the course. In 1920, he won the first post World War I
Open Championship at Royal Cinque Ports in Kent, in one of the greatest
comebacks in Open Championship history. After shooting 80 in his first two
rounds, Duncan was thirteen shots behind the leader, Abe Mitchell, before the
final two rounds were played, but made up the deficit to win by two shots from
Sandy Herd. His rounds were
80-80-71-72=303. He is the last player to win a golf major with a score of 80
for a round. Although he did not win the
British Open in 1922, his third round of that Open was included as one of the
25 greatest rounds of golf ever played in the Guinness Book of Golf Records
Facts and Champions. His third round 69 was only the third round shot under 70
in British Open history; a major achievement given the limitations of the golf
technology of the day. He just failed to win the 1922 Open, eventually losing
to Walter Hagen by a margin of one stroke. The scene of his demise was a dip in
the fairway in front of the 18th green from which he fluffed a chip shot to a
position five yards short of the pin. He eventually missed the crucial putt for
a tie with Hagen, which led to the short position in front of the 18th being
ironically named "Duncan's Hollow."
He played for Great Britain in the Ryder Cup in 1927, 1929, and 1931. He
was playing captain in 1929 when Great Britain was the victorious side
The card measures 2 5/8 inches by 1 ½ inches
approximately. The card does have some lighter corner and edge wear, but is free from major creases. I have scanned the cards front and back fairly large for you to
be able to judge condition for yourself.
THESE CARDS WERE NEVER ISSUED IN
THE U.S.
and are scarce. Due to the lower
population in Canada than in the US,
print runs in Canada were much smaller compared
with American Cards. (Because of this the majority of all Canadian non sports
cards are far scarcer than card issued
in the USA and UK)
I will be
trying to list several EARLY TRADE & TYPE CARDS over the next few
days (spread
across different categories), including one or two that are unrecorded in
any guide, that were put given away with Tobacco, Cigarettes , Caramel, Candy,
Gum, Chocolate, Bread Coffee Tea Cereal and other products, covering such
diverse subjects as Native American Indians , Baseball , Football, Boy Scouts,
Ice Hockey, Golf, Presidents of the United States, NCAA and IVY League Colleges
and Universities, Dog Breeds, Circus
themes and many more. To view the other cards I have up on ebay please
click on the “View Sellers other Items” Icon located on this page. It
will take you directly to them.