Tennessee
Active Member
United States
Saturday, February 15th I sold a couple guitars. One fellow wanted me to meet him at this obscure flea market kind of inbetween my town of Cleveland, TN and the entrance to the Smokie Mountains just East of here. I got there first, and since I had just sold three golf club hat racks, decided to walk through this very old indoor flea market to see if I could score a few clubs to make racks out of.
Right away I found some nice Golfsmith clubs, and in that mix was a Malty Sand Slider. Picture below. What an odd club. Just a triangle with a hosel, really. It had seen some use, but it seems like some kind of Alien knockoff, or a club that actually would slide over the sand to chip your ball out. Just strange.
Then I was walking around looking for more, and this guy kept yelling to me, "Hey Mister", Yeah, you". Apparently he picked me out since I was carrying the Golfsmith clubs. I finally turned, since the place was pretty deserted, and he said take a look at this: He reached behind a chair against the wall of his display area and pulled out the Banjo Putter in the picture. I had JUST barely heard of these, certainly never saw or held one in real life. He didn't seem to know what he had, but knew it was rare. We went 'round for a while, settling on $15. When I got home I cleaned it up and started looking on the Net. Much to my surprise, the company was started right here in Cleveland, TN, by a retired engineer named Gene Yost. He made it all the way to getting stainless steel bodies, chrome shafts and SS wire from Asia, got a trademark and patent, but as far as I can tell, there is no way the USGA would ever, ever approve this thing.
This must be a very early one, made here in Cleveland. He started out, according to one article, with brass solid bodies but the final product sold on the Internet and in golf shops was Stainless. This one has not only a brass body, but a simple painted black shaft, and an old Tacky-Mac putter grip. Prototype, maybe??
I found an article about Arnold Palmer's putter collection, and it mentions a Banjo Putter. It notes that the putter works well.
I can tell you, the putter pops the ball off those wires. My little indoor putting surface, it just propels the ball way easier than any other putter I own. I can see this thing shrinking a large green easily, and that is why I am sure the USGA never approved this thing. Gene Yost died in 2009, and his company folded sometime between its start in 2002 and 2009.
You never see any on eBay, and the only one I could find for sale was a 2006 posting from a guy in Canada.
Just another lost design! Now safely in my collection...
The Maltby Sand Slider
The Banjo Putter
Right away I found some nice Golfsmith clubs, and in that mix was a Malty Sand Slider. Picture below. What an odd club. Just a triangle with a hosel, really. It had seen some use, but it seems like some kind of Alien knockoff, or a club that actually would slide over the sand to chip your ball out. Just strange.
Then I was walking around looking for more, and this guy kept yelling to me, "Hey Mister", Yeah, you". Apparently he picked me out since I was carrying the Golfsmith clubs. I finally turned, since the place was pretty deserted, and he said take a look at this: He reached behind a chair against the wall of his display area and pulled out the Banjo Putter in the picture. I had JUST barely heard of these, certainly never saw or held one in real life. He didn't seem to know what he had, but knew it was rare. We went 'round for a while, settling on $15. When I got home I cleaned it up and started looking on the Net. Much to my surprise, the company was started right here in Cleveland, TN, by a retired engineer named Gene Yost. He made it all the way to getting stainless steel bodies, chrome shafts and SS wire from Asia, got a trademark and patent, but as far as I can tell, there is no way the USGA would ever, ever approve this thing.
This must be a very early one, made here in Cleveland. He started out, according to one article, with brass solid bodies but the final product sold on the Internet and in golf shops was Stainless. This one has not only a brass body, but a simple painted black shaft, and an old Tacky-Mac putter grip. Prototype, maybe??
I found an article about Arnold Palmer's putter collection, and it mentions a Banjo Putter. It notes that the putter works well.
I can tell you, the putter pops the ball off those wires. My little indoor putting surface, it just propels the ball way easier than any other putter I own. I can see this thing shrinking a large green easily, and that is why I am sure the USGA never approved this thing. Gene Yost died in 2009, and his company folded sometime between its start in 2002 and 2009.
You never see any on eBay, and the only one I could find for sale was a 2006 posting from a guy in Canada.
Just another lost design! Now safely in my collection...
The Maltby Sand Slider
The Banjo Putter
