Rare Tiger Woods memorabilia goes for jaw-dropping price
By Alex Perry
A rare slice of Tiger Woods’ memorabilia has sold for an eye-watering amount of money.
The latest item from the 15-time major champion to be put up for sale by Golden Age Auctions was the red Nike polo shirt he wore in the final round of the 2010 Masters.
Not only that, it’s signed by the man himself.
While Woods didn’t win at Augusta National that year – his Green Jackets came in 1997, 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2019 – he did finish in a tie for 4th with KJ Choi, five back of champion Phil Mickelson. (Anthony Kim – remember him? – finished 3rd.)
But what is significant his vintage Sunday red shirt, is it was his first tournament back after his hiatus from the game following the sex scandal and subsequent end of his marriage to Elin Nordegren.
And one lucky fan is now the owner of said garment thanks to a winning bid of $139,348.80 – just shy of £113,000 – from a starting price of $5,000.
“Game-worn sports memorabilia, especially items photo-matched to a memorable moment or historic event, are setting records all around the world this year,” Golden Age Auction’s Ryan Carey told Golf Digest ahead of the auction. “A Michael Jordan jersey recently sold for $10.1 million at Sotheby’s, and a Diego Maradona soccer jersey recently sold for $9.3 million.
“We believe this is the only Sunday red from a Masters Tournament that has been auctioned, and the others might not surface.
“Normally [the shirt being signed] would help the price a tiny bit, but I think it helps even more with this one. Tiger doesn’t autograph stuff like that very often. It’s a huge autograph, too. This one is special.”
So how did this shirt end up in Carey’s hands?
“I got lucky,” he explained. “I went through a bunch of our past auctions of other Tiger shirts, and when I reached out for a shirt from Tiger’s 2007 Wachovia victory, the owner said he had traded it for a different shirt, which happened to be this one.
“I spent several months trying to convince him to let me put it up for auction. I wanted to put it up with the Tiger Slam irons, but he wasn’t ready. But once he saw our results with the Tiger irons [which sold for more than $5 million], he reached out almost within an hour.”
Alex Perry
Alex has been the editor of National Club Golfer since 2017. A Devonian who enjoys wittering on about his south west roots, Alex moved north to join NCG after more than a decade in London, the last five of which were with ESPN. Away from golf, Alex follows Torquay United and spends too much time playing his PlayStation or his guitar and not enough time practising his short game.
