Percy Adolphus Vaile was a New Zealander who wrote instruction books on golf and, to an even greater extent, tennis. He has, to my knowledge, two golf club designs to his name: the swan-neck putter for which he (unsuccessfully) applied for a patent with the manufacturer F H Ayres in 1905 and this, the stroke-saver.

Forgan made the stroke-saver in three forms. Firstly in the 1920s he produced a standard hickory shafted model. Later he produced it as a steel-shafted mode, the shaft being covered with a pyralin sheath. There was also a third form, this one, the rarest of the three where a hickory shaft is coverered with pyralin. I don’t know what the marketing reason behind it was: perhaps weatherproofing.

The shaft begins with a square cross-section at the top tapering to the more usual circular cross-section below the original leather grip. The club was to be used for chipping, the same purpose as a jigger but, at the same length and with the same upright lie, played like a putter.

It has a boat-shaped head with dot-punched face. The reverse is stamped with the Forgan flagstick mark, "Regd", "Forgan St Andrews", "Made in Scotland", It has a very heavy flange, stamped "P A Vaile" (in signature) and "Stroke-Saver".

Price $220.00 Reference: JIG208