Golf memorabilia associated with 15-time Major winner Tiger Woods has been hot property at auction this year. Back in April, the irons he used during his famous Tiger Slam era sold at auction for a record-breaking $5,156,162 at Golden Age Auctions.
Now, according to a report in Golf Digest, the same auction house is expected to attract similar interest with an iconic red Nike shirt worn by Woods during the final round of the 2010 Masters at Augusta National. Woods finished tied for fourth at the tournament, five shots behind winner Phil Mickelson.
Ryan Carey of Golden Age Auctions is confident that the shirt will prove as popular as similar sports items that have sold for record amounts recently. He said: “Game-worn sports memorabilia, especially items photo-matched to a memorable moment or historic event, are setting records all around the world this year. 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.”
While the fact Woods couldn’t add to his tally of Major wins in the tournament may reduce the sale price, it is believed to be the first time one of Woods’ famous red shirts from the Masters have been auctioned, with no guarantee that others will become available in the future. Another thing likely to add to the value is that it is signed by Woods. Those are factors that Carey thinks will help move the price significantly.
He said: “We believe this is the only Sunday red from a Masters Tournament that has been auctioned, and the others might not surface. The shirt is signed by Woods. Normally that would help the price a tiny bit, but I think it helps even more with this one. It has a massive inscription that says '2010 Masters Final Round,' and Tiger doesn’t autograph stuff like that very often. It’s a huge autograph, too. This one is special that he did that.”
Despite Carey’s confidence of attracting high bids for the shirt, until recently, similar Woods memorabilia had been strangely overlooked, with one shirt sold in 2016 for just $10,780. However, he thinks it will be far different this time. He said: “That was crazy that it went for so little. This will go for much more. A Tiger Woods tournament-worn shirt has never sold for $100,000. Expect that to change with this shirt.”
Carey also explained how the shirt came to be auctioned. He said: “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, he reached out almost within an hour."
The auction begins on 22 November with a starting bid of $5,000, while it runs until Saturday 10 December.
Check out the Golf Monthly website for all the latest news, reviews and the best Black Friday golf deals as we approach Christmas.
