Alistair Johnston Gifts Golf's Greatest Private Library To The R&A
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Amazing news out of London and St. Andrews: longtime agent Alistair Johnston is gifting his incredible 30,000 golf book collection, easily the most complete and remarkable private collection today.
“We are very grateful to Alastair for this generous gift,” Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said.
“We are excited to continue his vision and support his desire to display this collection in its entirety in Scotland. I can think of no more appropriate place than St Andrews to create the world’s most comprehensive library of golf books.”
The goal is to have the library in place by the Open’s return to St. Andrews in 2021.
Having seen some of the great private collections broken up by auctions or failures to protect them in one locale, this is a great day for the R&A and a remarkable contribution from Johnston. Giving future generations access to essentially the entire story of the game and in St. Andrews, is a very special thing for golf and golf history.
Global Golf Post’s John Steinbreder profile of the collection is available here for Global Golf Post subscribers.
The above Gigapan was captured by Darren Carroll.
