If you ever thought about owning a historic set of golf clubs used by Tiger Woods, you’d better have insanely deep pockets.
Well, for one lucky punter, they have the entire set Woods used during his legendary run from 2000 to 2001.
Or do they?
Woods’ famous bag from that iconic stretch included Titleist 681-T irons as well as Vokey wedges.
His 60-degree and 58-degree wedges also came with a ‘Tiger’ inscription on them.
Although the clubs weren’t made with any unusual materials, there must have been magic dust sprinkled throughout the manufacturing process as Woods won nine events in 2000.
Three of those were majors as he finished top of the pile at the U.S. Open, The Open and the PGA Championship.
Woods went on to win The Masters in 2001 to become the first man to hold all four majors since Bobby Jones accomplished the feat in 1930.
While nobody has ever completed a calendar grand slam in golf, Woods’ achievement became known as the ‘Tiger Slam’.
The 48-year-old even added another prestigious trophy to his collection that year when he won the Players Championship.
So when Woods’ club from that trophy-laden period were put up for sale by Golden Age Auctions in March 2022, it looked extremely likely the record for golf memorabilia would be shattered.
Prior to the auction for Woods’ clubs, the highest fee paid for an iconic piece of golf history was for Horton Smiths’ Masters green jacket, which got sold for $682,000 (£524,799) in September 2013.
But that figure was eclipsed, and then some.
The auction began at $25,000 (£19,239) but skyrocketed all the way to seven figures as an American individual bought Woods’ set for an eye-watering $5.15m (£3.96m).
A Houston resident by the name of Todd Brock was the man who came into possession of Woods’ clubs before the seven-figure sale when he bought them for a measly $57,242 (£44,060) in 2010 from Steve Mata.
Mata was Titleist’s Vice President of Player Promotions in 2001 and picked up the clubs when he and a co-worker brought new prototype clubs to Woods at a tournament that year.
Woods was keen to use his new set right away, so the Titleist co-worker took the 48-year-old’s old clubs to ensure there were no glaring differences in the specs.
The 15-time major winner then decided to gift his old set of clubs to Mata, who had them in his possession until he sold them on to Brock.
Golden Age’s auction was not without controversy though as Woods’ longtime agent Mark Steinberg disputed the authenticity of the clubs.
In a statement to Golf Digest, Steinberg said: “Tiger has the authentic set of the Slam irons in his house. Do you think Tiger would ever give away something that meaningful to his career?
“Could there be replicas out there that he was generous in giving away? Sure. But replicas versus authenticity – read into it what you will.”
However, Golden Age founder Ryan Carey doubled down and was adamant the set of clubs they were selling were indeed legitimate.
“The two Titleist executives who were in charge of Tiger’s clubs have signed sworn affidavits asserting their legitimacy, one took a polygraph and passed it, and the original buyer in 2010 did his due diligence as well,” Carey said.
“And just take a look at the 8-iron wear mark. That club was clearly struck in the dead centre thousands of times by the greatest ball-striker in the world.
“If Tiger believes he has these clubs at his house, we’d love to see them.”
