Sotheby's auctioneer Graham Budd said the clubs were "probably the earliest known examples of traditional hand-crafted club-making from New Zealand".
Catalogue information showed two of the clubs had stamps on them - the first H. Dunn, and the other "Dunn" between a P and an L.
"... Possibly ladies [sic] play club, constructed in the traditional long nosed style of the feather ball era, but with the hickory shafts attached by the later method of socket joints, as opposed to scared necks," the catalogue says.
"The timber of the club heads is unfamiliar and presumably a suitable local timber was selected, the group comprising play clubs and spoons, but with the fifth club probably best described as a walking stick rather than a cut-down putter.
"One club with a hairline crack but overall the group is in good condition."
The clubs will be auctioned at Sotheby's New Bond St sale room in Mayfair on May 15 and are expected to fetch up to 600 ($NZ1195).
The Otago owner did not wish to be known, Mr Budd said.
"The group of five golf clubs were discovered in the deep south in a small farming village in a region that was dominated by Scottish settlers, as is evident from the local place names such as Duntroon, Balclutha, Invercargill, Clyde," the catalogue stated.
However, golfing historians John Evans and Winston Cooper did not believe the clubs were early examples of New Zealand-made clubs.
Mr Cooper said H. Dunn was a well-known Scottish club-maker in Carnoustie, Scotland, and he believed the clubs were brought to New Zealand about the end of the 19th century.
While there were members of the Dunn family living in Dunedin in the late 1800s, Mr Evans said there was no record of a Dunn as a golf club manufacturer.
"There was a proud history of golf club manufacturing in Dunedin from the early days of the 1870s until 1989, when Evansgolf moved to Auckland.
"There is no history of Dunn, the member of the Dunedin Golf Club, being a club-maker but there is plenty of mention of R.D. Smith, also an original member, being a club-maker, as were his sons and grandsons.
"Other early club-makers included McCarthy, David Hood and J.McLaren."
He believed it was unlikely the clubs were an early example of New Zealand-made clubs because the socket head design used in the making of the clubs marked "Dunn" was not invented until the late 1890s.
"There is one other element which concerns me as to the age of the clubs.
"Early woods did not have black base plates. They were mainly white ram's horn, and the faces with leather inserts did not come into vogue until the guttie ball was introduced, as featheries did not need them.
"Featheries would have been the only ball available to the Dunedin golf club member in the 1870s."
Neither Mr Evans or Mr Cooper knew who the clubs belonged to.
