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Tiger Woods’ golf clubs are worth a fortune, literally.
While Woods competes in his first Masters in 14 months following a car-accident injury, the iron set used 20 years prior during his legendary “Tiger Slam” season was sold for $5.1 million at Golden Age Auctions last weekend.
The purchase makes Woods’ clubs the highest grossing golf memorabilia in history — by a long shot — with the previous high set by a jacket worn by first 1934 Masters’ winner, Horton Smith, which went for a humble $682,000.
The auction opened on March 23, with Golden Age Auctions tweeting a picture on the 24th with the caption, “Tiger Woods, 8 iron, 2001. Put it in the Louvre.”
Related: Want a Tiger Woods Comeback? All It Takes Is the Right Mindset.
Avid Woods’ fan and previous owner of the clubs, Todd Brock, purchased the irons in 2010 for $57,242 from former vice president of player promotions, Steve Mata. While Brock admired the clubs for 12 years framed in his office, he told ESPN that it was “time for somebody else to do something bigger and better with them.”
However, when the clubs were first sold in 2010, Woods claimed that the set in question was still in his garage. Mata then took a polygraph test to confirm the authenticity, along with Brock doing additional research and photo matching to prove the legitimacy of the winning clubs.
While Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, reiterated Woods’ previous claim about the clubs upon news of the relisting, Golden Age founder, Ryan Carey, stood by the auction listing, confirming that “the two Titleist executives who were in charge of Tiger’s clubs have signed sworn affidavits asserting their legitimacy,” according to Golf Digest.
Related: Business Lessons From Tiger Woods’ Triumph at the Masters
The bid started at $25,000, then became the highest grossing golf memorabilia in history at $5,156,162.40, and the second highest sports memorabilia behind a Babe Ruth jersey purchased for $5.6 million in 2019.
The set of Titleist irons, each stamped with “TIGER,” went to an unidentified buyer who outbid a number of individuals across three continents.
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