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The number is staggering. Some might call it absurd.
A set of irons that Tiger Woods purportedly used – more on that disclaimer shortly – to capture the Tiger Slam back in 2000 and 2001 sold at Golden Age Auctions for $5.156 million on April 9.
We may be living in inflationary times, but that price is believed to have shattered the previous mark for golf memorabilia. The green jacket of Horton Smith, the first Masters champion, sold for $682,000 in 2013, but no other golf piece has come remotely close to the Tiger Slam irons.
These irons, which were a complete set of Titleist 681-T’s in addition to 58- and 60-degree Vokey wedges, were expected to go for somewhere around $1 million before a bidding war drove the price north. Now the value of the set is in the neighborhood of the most sought-after sports memorabilia ever. Woods’ irons finished just behind some of the most iconic pieces of all-time, including a 1952 Mickey Mantle card ($5.2 million), a Babe Ruth game-used jersey from 1928-30 ($5.6 million) and a 1909 Honus Wagner card ($6.6 million).
But despite Woods’ sticks fetching a ridiculous amount, the history of the clubs has been questioned.
It’s commonly known that Woods used the Titleist 681-T’s throughout his historic run to win four consecutive major triumphs, and he switched to a set of new Titleist prototype irons at the 2001 Buick Open. The timeline from this point forward is disputed.
According to Golden Age, Woods gifted the original Tiger Slam irons to Steve Mata, then the vice president of player promotions for Titleist. Mata then sold those irons to Todd Brock, a Houston-area businessman who purchased them for $57,242 in 2010. Mata submitted to a polygraph test at the time and passed. There is also an affidavit from another former Titleist vice president, Rick Nelson, and the set comes with a 2000 Golfweek article by the late Jim Achenbach detailing the specs of Woods’ irons from that year’s PGA Championship – the specs match perfectly with this set sold at auction.
Photo comparisons made by Golden Age and Brock himself were said to confirm that the irons were indeed the same ones used during the Tiger Slam.
The 8-iron of the set has received a lot of attention due to an incredible wear pattern in the middle of the face. It’s perhaps the size of a nickel, the nearly black spot contrasting with the silver clubface. The apparent reasoning is that Woods often hit his 8-iron during warm-up sessions, another potential indication that this could be the actual set and not a replica.
After 12 years with the clubs, Brock decided to publicly acknowledge ownership for the first time. With other Woods memorabilia rising in value recently – even Tiger’s backup Scotty Cameron earned $393,000 last year – he made the decision to sell.
“I've had them for 12 years now, and I haven't told anybody that I owned them,” Brock told ESPN. “They were in a really nice frame in my office and I'm not an investor in memorabilia, so nobody was seeing the irons. I've had the opportunity to see these for 12 years and it's like a Rembrandt, where somebody takes it to their castle and it's never seen again. I felt blessed that I got to hang out with them and look at them, but it's time for somebody else to do something bigger and better with them.”
However, Woods’ camp has long denied that these irons are the real deal. In 2010, Woods said Mata had a replica set.
“He may have my set of irons, but they’re not from those tournaments,” Woods said at the time. “They’re in my garage.”
Woods’ agent, Mark Steinberg, told Golf Digest last month that Tiger has the authentic set in his house.
“Could there be replicas out there that he was generous in giving away? Sure,” Steinberg said. “But replicas versus authenticity – read into it as you will.”
Ryan Carey, owner of Golden Age, said that he has done a deep dive into the authenticity of the irons, conducting dozens of interviews in addition to the aforementioned photo research. He has pushed for Brock to bring them to the memorabilia market for many years, he said.
“We can say with 100 percent confidence that these clubs were used by Tiger Woods during his legendary 2000-01 seasons,” Carey told PGATour.com.
“I left my big law firm job when I first sold these irons 12 years ago, realizing that this is what I wanted to do,” Carey said, alluding to when Brock bought the irons in 2010. “I spent much of those 12 years trying to get them back. I can’t wait for everyone to see them.”
The clubs sold at auction earlier this month now belong to an American, but that is all we know. It’s common for an identity to be protected in these situations, particularly for a massive purchase such as this one.
In any case, where the real Tiger Slam irons reside will remain a mystery for the time being.
Sean Fairholm