A ball marker is the cheapest thing in golf that can still be properly made, and the best of them come out of a unit on Broadhollow Road in Melville, New York. Jon Millman hand stamps, torches and paints copper discs under the name Golf Life Metals, and his own storefront sells replicas of the markers that won the 2025 and 2026 Masters, the 2025 Players, the 2025 Tour Championship and the 2021 Senior Open. The site says the work has been in play at the Olympics and the Ryder Cup, claims more than fifteen hundred designs for fifty-plus tour pros, and puts it plainly: back to back Masters won with GLM. Six inches down the same page sits a marker that says Fuck Bogeys.
The rest is a question of method. Seamus forges in Portland and Fyfe in Scotland, both striking metal by hand, so no two come out the same. Pins & Aces holds a real Coca-Cola licence and a second with a rolling-paper company. Matchstick draws its markers as illustrations rather than logos, which is how a dinosaur caddie and Chunk from The Goonies hold together at coin size. Sounder named two after a hill in Gloucestershire.
Seventy-seven markers from twenty brands sit in nine groups, running from hand-forged copper through licensed artwork to a line of drinks rendered in enamel. Prices go from six dollars to two hundred and fourteen, in five currencies, none of them converted, so every number is what the brand itself charges.
Jon Millman works out of a unit on Broadhollow Road in Melville, New York. He hand stamps, torches and paints 1.25" copper discs, and his site says the results have been in play at Majors, the Olympics and the Ryder Cup. It also says “back to back Masters won with GLM.” The storefront sells replicas of the winning ones.
Seamus forges theirs in Portland, Oregon. Fyfe does the same in Scotland. Bronze, copper, steel, nickel and oil can, all struck rather than cast, which is why no two come out identical.
The category where a marker stops being a marker and starts being a small opinion about what you like.
Licensing costs money, which is why almost nobody at this scale does it. Pins & Aces has Coca-Cola. SWAG has Tito's.
Championship one-offs and course-specific pieces, including two named for a hill in Gloucestershire.
This is a real category. Matchstick alone makes three flavours of a Gatorade parody, two iced coffees and an Old Fashioned.
Seamus does most of the forging for other people's ideas, which is how a Portland blacksmith ends up making an owl for a brand in Los Angeles.
Leather, enamel sets and brushed gold, for anyone who thinks a forged copper disc is a bit much.
Nothing here costs more than twenty dollars and several are under ten.
Golf Life Metals, run by Jon Millman out of Melville on Long Island, is the one most often in play. Their site states the markers have been used in Majors, PGA tournaments, the Olympics and the Ryder Cup, claims more than 1,500 designs and 50+ tour pros, and says “back to back Masters won with GLM.”
Their listed custom copper markers run roughly $115 to $214. Replicas of tour-winning designs are $115. A raw copper blank is $6.
One struck from metal by hand rather than cast or printed. Seamus Golf forges theirs in Portland, Oregon and Fyfe Golf forges in Scotland, in bronze, copper, steel, nickel and oil can finishes. Because each is struck individually, no two are identical.
Golf Life Metals custom copper at up to $214. Outside custom work, MARK & LONA's Majestic Iron Skull at ¥10,125 and SWAG's markers at $66.66 are the top of the range.
Matchstick Golf's flame magnetic pin and a Golf Life Metals copper blank, both $6. Left of Field's script marker is A$7 and Sounder's Cleeve Hill marker is £5.
A few. Pins & Aces makes Coca-Cola bottle and polar bear markers and a series with the rolling-paper brand Blazy Susan. SWAG Golf makes two for Tito's.
Seamus does championship editions including the 2026 U.S. Women's Open at Riviera and the 2025 Ryder Cup. Golf by QD makes one for Kiawah's Ocean Course. Sounder makes two for Cleeve Hill, their home course in Gloucestershire.
No. Each price is shown in the currency the brand charges: US dollars, British pounds, euros, Australian dollars and Japanese yen.
