The Penfold PGA

Royal St. George’s, venue for the 1975 Penfold PGA Championship

Penfold, a name once synonymous with the world’s finest tournaments, golfers, golf balls and accessories, is bringing vintage Britain back to the pro shops of modern America

of shirking bad weather. The British links are renowned for fast-changing and occasional brutal golf conditions and Palmer knew all about it.

The Old Course at St Andrews, a golf course that hardly ever floods, was submerged by torrential rain that interrupted The Open in 1960 and filled the depths of the Valley of Sin. Palmer made his debut in golf’s oldest major championship that summer, and finished just a shot shy of winner Kel Nagle. A year later at Royal Birkdale, ropes and pegs were no match for gales that blew away many of The Open’s marquees—and this time Palmer won the Claret Jug by a shot.

Fourteen years later, when Palmer made the visit to England for the 1975 Penfold PGA Championship at Royal St. George’s—another classic, uncompromising links and regular venue for The Open—the weather turned nasty again. Palmer was 45 by now but he was ready, as ever, and an eagle in the final round at the treacherous par-five 14th—a long, straight hole with Out of Bounds threatening all along its righthand side—set up a two-shot triumph. He shot 71, one under par, in the final round and was the only golfer to finish under par that day.

The PGA Championship—the PGA of America’s version and golf’s fourth major—was the one major title to elude Palmer. He won the Masters four times, The Open twice and the U.S. Open once but could not complete his career grand slam.

“You know I’ve been trying for years to win a PGA Championship,” beamed Palmer as he cradled the Penfold PGA Championship trophy. He was the first American winner of the Penfold PGA title and also the only one, until Billy Horschel last year won what is now called the BMW PGA Championship.

“Royal St. George’s Golf Club is one of England’s toughest links courses, and the scene of one of my proudest international victories—in the Penfold PGA Championship in 1975,” Palmer would tell Kingdom magazine years later. “But a word of warning to Americans who plan to go over there: when the wind blows and the rain lashes at Royal St. George’s it can be a brutal course to play, and one that requires patience and fortitude.”

Penfold was the title sponsor of the European Tour’s PGA Championship for three years, from 1975 to 1977, and the company also was the pre-eminent producer of golf balls at the time—famous for individually wrapping them. How popular were they? It was a Penfold Red Heart that James Bond [played by Sean Connery] used in the 1964 movie Goldfinger, and if it’s good enough for Bond...

“It was a big story when Arnold Palmer flew over to England and won the Penfold PGA Championship,” starts Gavin Perrett, C.E.O. of Penfold Golf, who is leading a resurgence of sorts in the company. “Penfold put up the biggest prize fund in the history of the championship at that time, to make it the European Tour’s flagship tournament.”

Albert Ernest Penfold founded his company (originally called Golf Ball Developments Ltd) in Birmingham, England, having designed the Maxfli ball for Dunlop. Penfold devised a new winding technique for the rubber thread, which permitted extreme tension and boosted shot accuracy and distance. The company also invented what is thought to have been the world’s first golf ball testing robot, which remains on display at Ladbrook Park Golf Club, just south of Birmingham. Penfold himself served as club president there in the 1930s.

Palmer accepts congratulations at the ‘75 Penfold PGA [top]; Goldfinger & James Bond go head to head at London’s Stoke Park

The Penfold ball was so popular on both sides of the Atlantic that in 1936 the company opened a U.S. factory in Brooklyn. In the 1930s, Penfold produced 6,000 golf balls a week—approximately 300,000 a year—and by the time Bond played the Red Heart in Goldfinger the company had become the first manufacturer to produce one million golf balls a year. Gary Player and Seve Ballesteros swore by the Penfold Ace, with a tight-wound construction and thin balata cover to boost feel on scoring shots.

Sales rocketed in the mid-’60s once Bond declared, “Here’s my Penfold Hearts,” as he foiled the cheating Goldfinger, and Ballesteros won The Open for the first time at Royal Lytham in 1979 playing the Penfold Tradition.

Golf balls remain central to Penfold operations today, along with a striking line of Heritage golf bags and accessories. The Heritage Sunday golf bag combines nostalgia with innovation and a touch of class. Available in green, navy or burgundy, the bag is made from waxed canvas and full-grain leather and fitted with a waterproof lining. The minimalist Heritage Sunday bag has just two zip pockets as it harks back to simpler times.

Also look out for Penfold’s line of vintage gloves this spring. Made from the finest cabretta leather to bring a thin touch, light feel, yet strength and durability, the gloves have a contemporary fit with vintage styling, and striking colors to revive the Penfold gloves worn on tour by the world’s best players in the 1970s, complete with the distinctive Penfold heart logo on the back of the hand.

“We have something unique with our new gloves,” adds Perrett. “The colors match a lot of the bright colored gloves worn by golfers in the ’70s, such as an orange glove worn by Gary Player; the color is identical but the glove has a modern fit and design. We also have white versions with a red heart and a black heart.”

With its legacy of style, class and performance, Penfold is back on course, where it belongs.