Very Rare Lee Trevino Golf Balls

Very Rare Lee Trevino Golf Balls

The Lee Trevino John Letters “Master Mex”, circa 1965 Scotland, is listed as “Very Rare” in the “Signature Golf Ball Collectors Guide” by Paul Biocini (2000). Lee Trevino was a staff player in the mid 1960s and early 1970s for John Letters. John Letters is a Scottish golf club manufacturer founded in Glasgow in 1918.

Getting these rare golf balls and the even more rare box is a long story, but you already know “I’m gonna tell it all.” Back in February 2013, I found a box of wrapped golf balls at an auction in Great Britain listed as a box of Dunlop 65 golf balls. Looking at the photo, I could see that eight of the balls had white wrapping with a blue label I knew they were not all 65s because a week earlier a Canadian collector friend had sent me photos of a portion of his collection. He had the first sleeve Lee Trevino John Letters “Master Mex” that are each wrapped. I have a sleeve of them also but they are not wrapped. The listing included an old golf course “cart paths only” sign, four wrapped Dunlop 65s and eight of the wonderful “Scottish” gems I immediately registered with the auction house and placed my maximum bid. After a week of nail biting, the hammer fell and my bid came up short. Broken hearted, I moved on with my search for something special, in the world of signature golf balls. The following week I combed eBay for something to add to my collection. I typed in Dunlop 65 golf balls, and low and behold I discovered a box containing four 65s and eight other golf balls wrapped in white with blue labels. Yes, it was the very same box of golf balls I had bid on earlier (less the old sign) I went after them once again. This time, I won the bid and paid less, than half of what they would have cost me the week before.

Happy to have my very own mint condition Lee Trevino John Letters “Master Mex”, in their original wrapping and label, I planned to sell a few of my surplus golf balls. Before I could sell any of them, fate stepped in again and I found an eBay listing for two empty Slazenger golf ball boxes and a Lee Trevino John Letters “Master Mex” golf balls box with four wrapped balls. The rest is history!