He stopped calling himself a collector. But when Abraham Ancer actually thought about it, he admitted that he has around 60 putters in his San Antonio, Texas home.
“I have a lot of putters just because I go through times of tinkering and trying out other putters and making my players jealous, as I like to call them,” says Ancer. “Well, I like to see maybe a week or something else.
“And then I go back to my player.”
Ancer usually plays with an Odyssey No. 5 putter. But there are a few counterbalanced putters in this fairly large collection to help him hone his rhythm and setup if he needs to put this player in their place.
Not all putters in his collection, however, are the type Ancer, who won the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in August, could use on the PGA TOUR. Some are very special – “one of those you won’t find anywhere else,” he says.
“And that’s the stuff I kind of like.”
There is a replica of his gamer with an insert made of Damascus metal, which is only available in Japan, for example. And those made by Joe Toulon, Callaway’s putter guru, stamped with the logo of Ancer’s tequila company, Flecha Azul.
“So there are some cool models that might look like a regular putter to the naked eye, but there is something a lot of people don’t know about it, and it’s pretty cool to me,” says Ancer.
Ancer keeps about 10 of the putters on the wall in his office while the others are in the closet. He says when people come to visit they first grab one of the putters and hit a few.
“The ones I actually train with or who I would like to see are in my office, which is where the putting mat I use is,” says Ancer. “So if I’m not doing a lot, I just get in and practice a little. …
“But when I move into my next home, I want to actually show off all of my favorite pieces so that people can see them, not just keep them in a closet. I feel bad just to have her in there. “
In addition to all of these putters, Ancer also has golf bags and other useful clubs that he has used throughout his career that he would like to display. One set is the bag, irons, and driver he used when he turned pro in 2013 after graduating from Oklahoma with a degree in multidisciplinary studies.
Ancer also has the bag he received at the 2019 Presidents Cup – and the man currently ranked 4th in the international team standings is likely to add another one in 2022. Plus, Ancer is a two-time Olympian, so these bags are special too.
“That stuff just means a lot to me,” says Ancer. “And clubs that I played on the go and and I remember doing good punches or whatever it is. I like to keep the bag I’m using and the clubs I’m using right now. “
Ancer, who was born in McAllen, Texas and has dual citizenship, says he likely displayed seven bags in his San Antonio home. But there are others in his childhood home in Reynosa, Mexico – including his father’s golf bag and the clubs he used when he first started playing golf.
Ancer’s father, Abraham Sr., who died in 2014, was the one who introduced him to the game. He took his son to Club Campestre de Reynosa when Ancer was still in diapers, and the precocious boy began to hit balls as soon as he could stand.
“So my father’s clubs are definitely sentimental and I definitely want to keep them forever,” says Ancer.
Some of the clubs Ancer used as a child are also kept safe in Mexico.
“These are great memories,” he says. “I was small, but I grew up with clubs that were much longer than I needed to be. I’ve never been that fit. That’s why for many people who see me playing now, I’m really far from the ball, because I’ve just got used to it. “