When Robert Redford’s film adaptation of the Steven Pressfield novel “The Legend of Bagger Vance” opened Friday, the MSU Museum was a part of the long-awaited film.
The museum contributed some of the props used in the film.
The movie, which takes place in the 1930s in Georgia, uses nearly 30 pieces of vintage golf course equipment borrowed from the MSU Museum’s Kenyon T. Payne Collection.
Starring Will Smith, Matt Damon and Charlize Theron, the film follows Rannulph Junuh (Damon) as he reluctantly takes up the game of golf with his somewhat mystical caddy Bagger Vance (Smith), and, through lessons and teachings from him, learns more than just the perfect swing.
“The collection of vintage turf grass equipment was assembled over the years by the late Professor Kenyon Payne, a respected member of the turfgrass management faculty at MSU,” said Val Roy Berryman, curator of history at the MSU Museum. “He began the collection in the late 1970s, and the students in his classes refurbished the equipment in their spare time.”
The filmmakers wanted to add authenticity to the film and, because the Payne Collection has such a long history and is treasured by many golf course superintendents around the country, it seemed like the right choice.
The “Bagger Vance” production company contacted the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America to get help finding authentic equipment that would have been used on golf courses in the 1920s and 1930s, Berryman said.
The museum houses some of the Payne Collection, and some is housed at the association’s headquarters in Lawrence, Kan. The film uses equipment from both places.
After guaranteeing the safety of the pieces in the collection, the museum shipped three large crates full of vintage mowers, seeders, spikers, sod cutters, divot repair tools and rakes.
“The GCSAA has never had the opportunity to provide props for a movie,” said Jeff Bollig, the association’s director of communications. “The cooperative agreement between the GCSAA and the MSU Museum provided an extensive inventory from which to select.
“Some of the items requested were too fragile to ship and thus could not be included,” Bollig said. “But there were no problems in the handling of the other equipment.”
The history of the collection, which includes the multiple foundations and people who have cared for it, makes it one of the museum’s most esteemed cultural collections.
“The collection was added to by the GCSAA,” Berryman said. “When the collection was transferred to the MSU Museum in 1997, the GCSAA began providing financial assistance in housing and caring for the collection.”
The association, as well as the Payne Collection, sees this opportunity as an excellent way to showcase the importance and historical value of golf course maintenance.
“The opportunity to showcase vintage equipment is an excellent opportunity to document how far the golf course maintenance industry has come,” Bollig said. “It also provides the means to recognize the profession’s contributions to the game, not only in the early years of the game, but today as well.”
