The temptation to hit the course with these clubs must be unbearable
Private equity investor Todd Brock bought himself a piece of golf history in 2010 when he acquired the clubs Tiger Woods used during his famous Tiger Slam, winning four consecutive major tournaments (2000 U.S. Open, Open Championship, PGA Championship and 2001 Masters).
Brock paid a solid $57,242 for the Titleist 681-T iron and wedge set. Those same exact clubs went back up for auction over the weekend and proved a worthy investment. According to Golden Age Auctions, the Tiger Slam clubs sold for $5,156,162.40.
“In the 12 years since they first surfaced in the collector market in our 2010 auction, the Tiger Slam irons have been displayed privately in a Houston office complex – appreciated only by the occasional visitor with a passing interest in golf. Over the past several years, we have repeatedly pleaded with Brock to let us showcase them to the world. Yes, the collector market has matured a lot since the dark days of 2010. But it was never about the money, even though these clubs will likely reset the record books. Instead, it was about timing. When was the collector market finally ready to appreciate the value of the very best golf collectibles, and ready to appropriately appreciate Tiger Woods and his position in history.
“…This set includes 2-PW Titleist Forged irons and two custom Vokey wedges. The wedges are both stamped ‘TIGER’. The 58 degree wedge is bent to 56 degrees and hand stamped ’56*’. The wear mark on the face of the 8 iron is otherworldly.”
It’s unclear who bought the clubs, but that winner will have to fight the overwhelming temptation to take a few swings with them. Not at the rate those irons are increasing in value. No birdie opportunity is worth that much cash.
The set includes a 2000 Golfweek article detailing the specs of the irons used to win the 2000 PGA Championship.
Maybe you just sold a house during this red-hot real estate market. Maybe you have a fat tax return headed your way. Or maybe you just won the lottery. And maybe, with the first major of the year right around the corner, you have a little Masters fever.
Woods won the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in 2000 to become just the second golfer since Ben Hogan to win three majors in one year. Woods then made the turn in 2001 and won the Masters, becoming the first to hold all four professional major golf championships at the same time.
The set of Tiger Slam irons and wedges features nine Titleist 681-T irons, 2-iron through pitching wedge, as well as and two Vokey wedges. One is a 58-degree wedge, the other a 60. Both wedges have “TIGER” stamped on them. The club that gets the most attention is the 8-iron, because of its small wear pattern in the middle of the face.
To verify their authenticity, the irons come with an affidavit and polygraph results in 2010 from former Titleist vice president Steve Mata as well as a 2020 affidavit from former Titleist vice president Rick Nelson. The set also includes a 2000 Golfweek article by Jim Achenbach detailing the specs of the irons Woods used to win the 2000 PGA Championship, which match the specs of the irons being sold.
Ryan Carey, the owner of Golden Age auctions, said he has talked to “dozens of people intimately familiar with these clubs” about their authenticity. “We can say with 100 percent confidence that these clubs were used by Tiger Woods during his legendary 2000-01 seasons,” he told PGATour.com.
Golden Ages Auction is running the sale and if that name sounds familiar, it’s probably because it’s the same auction house that sold one of Woods’ backup Scotty Camerons last year for nearly $400,000. Golden Ages also sold Horton Smith’s green jacket from his 1934 Masters in 2013 for $682,000. Earlier this week, it sold a badge from that 1934 Masters Tournament for $600,000.
Here it is. This 1934 Masters ticket sold for $600,000. That’s an all-time record for any ticket in any sport pic.twitter.com/9AL9JluAak
That badge was signed by 17 people, including Smith, Augusta National Golf Club co-founder Bobby Jones and sportswriter Grantland Rice.
Bidding for the Tiger irons and wedges will close April 9, which happens to be the final round of the 2022 Masters.
The clubs were purchased in 2010 by Todd Brock, who made a winning bid of $57,242. He kept them in a frame in his office.
“I got to enjoy them for 11-12 years,” Brock told PGATour.com. “I live a boring life. I don’t entertain a whole lot, so they weren’t getting the eyes on them that they deserve.”
Tiger Woods held all four major titles at once after the 2001 Masters. Make no mistake, the feat was as remarkable then as it is now.
Imagine.
Tiger Woods, at the pinnacle of his powers, started hearing and reading that he was, get this, in a slump in the first quarter of 2001. Really? He had won 10 tournaments worldwide in 2000, including a record-obliterating U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. He became the youngest to complete the career Grand Slam in another record-setting romp in the Open Championship on the Old Course in St. Andrews, then won a third consecutive major when he out-dueled Bob May in a playoff at Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky to win the PGA Championship.
He was 25, the world No. 1 by serious distance, had five major triumphs on his resume, and he was the proud owner of 24 PGA Tour titles heading into 2001.
“No offense to Jack Nicklaus or anyone else but I don’t think anybody has played as well as Tiger played in that particular time,” said swing instructor Butch Harmon, who worked with Woods from 1993 to 2004, a stretch in which he won three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles, 40 PGA Tour titles and eight majors.
“He didn’t have any weaknesses,” Harmon continued. “And I don’t think we can say that about anyone else who has ever played the game. Tiger was the best at every part of the game. He was the best driver, he was the best at controlling his trajectory, he was the best at controlling distance. His short game was the best, he putted under pressure better than anyone. He was the best iron player.
“In my 77 years on this planet and being around golf nearly my entire life, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Woods was so good back then that he made major champion and 12-time PGA Tour winner Paul Azinger pick his spots on the range.
“He was extraordinary back then,” Azinger said. “It was just something to behold. Early on in his career when he came out and I was hitting balls next to him on the range, I would just pack up my gear and move. His stuff just sounded so much better and I was losing confidence when I watched his 9-iron leave. And my ball left nice, don’t get me wrong.
“My friends at home would complain that all we see is Tiger Woods, all they show is Tiger Woods. Well, I’d tell them if they had any idea how his ball sounded like and how the flight looked like, that’s all you would ever want to see. You’d never want to watch anything else. It was just different level stuff.”
But as the golf world celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Tiger Slam this year, it must be noted that in the early part of 2001, as Woods played his way toward the Masters where he’d try to win an unprecedented fourth consecutive professional major, he had not won in – check notes – six tournaments and the word “slump” was suddenly in the conservation.
Tiger Woods is helped into the his jacket for winning the Bay Hill Invitational by tournament host Arnold Palmer on March 18, 2001 in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Scott Audette)
“It annoyed him a little bit that there was some talk of a slump, especially considering he had just won the last three majors the year before,” said Rob McNamara, a longtime vice president of Woods’ foundation who also is a regular playing partner for Woods and provides a second set of eyes to monitor his swing. “It just didn’t add up. A slump? Come on. But it gave him a little chip on his shoulder, a little edge.”
Woods was a tad irritated, too, as he got an earful from reporters during the countdown to the Masters. A day after the 2000 PGA Championship, Woods’ team began a series of phone calls with sponsors, the PGA Tour and CBS concerning his quest for a fourth consecutive major. Woods wasn’t involved in the initial meetings but joined the dialogue about a month after he won the Wanamaker Trophy.
“He was being asked about the Masters every week he was out there but it never really bothered him,” Harmon said. “Mentally, he and Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan were the strongest players. Sure, he didn’t like all the questions because, really, what could he say? But it fueled the fire even more.”
And then there was the hype, the buzz, the laser beam of attention for eight months that was a bit grating even for a man who lived in the white-hot spotlight. And deep down, Woods realized he’d likely never get another chance to win four majors in succession, to go where no man had gone before, and the weight of knowing that just added another hefty log of expectation on his shoulders.
“He knew,” McNamara said, “that it was a once in a lifetime chance.”
Fuel for the fire
Back to the slump.
Woods won five of his last nine starts in 2000 – including the Johnnie Walker Classic to close the year – but started 2001 with a tie for eighth in the Mercedes Championship. He then tied for fifth in the Phoenix Open, tied for 13th in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, then finished fourth in the Buick Invitational.
Whispers of a slump began to take hold and then, after a tie for 13th in the Nissan Open in Los Angeles and a tie for second in the Dubai Desert Classic, the volume meter spiked despite Woods being a cumulative 75 under in those six starts.
On the eve of his next start in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Woods was greeted with questions concerning his “drought” of six winless events, one reporter in particular asking if he was bugged by people wondering what was wrong with him.
“Well, it’s annoying because of the fact that if you think that way, then you really don’t understand the game of golf,” Woods said.
Tiger Woods celebrates on the 18th green after winning the 2001 Bay Hill Invitational. Photo by Craig Jones/ALLSPORT
Fueled by the chatter and headlines, Woods lit the match as he defended his 2000 title at Arnie’s annual Bay Hill gathering. He hit a 5-iron to 15 feet on the 72nd hole and then buried the putt to topple Phil Mickelson by one shot. With rounds of 71-67-66-69 to finish at 15 under, Woods was back in the winner’s circle.
A week later at the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, Woods won the PGA Tour’s flagship event for the first time. After opening 72-69, he had his better-than-most moment on the 17th green during a round of 66 and then polished off his one-stroke victory Monday over Vijay Singh in the weather-delayed tournament.
“Some of the writers – and I know who they are – had suggested and said I was in a slump,” Woods said. “Obviously, they don’t really understand the game that well, because if you look at the way I was playing, I wasn’t playing that bad. It wasn’t like I was missing cuts every week. I was right there with a chance to win in virtually every tournament I teed up in, and I think that’s pretty good.
“It is a game that’s very fickle. You can try as hard as you want, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out.”
On to Augusta
When Woods arrived at Augusta National, he was primed, ready and definitely not in a slump.
“When we got there his game was at a perfect level,” Harmon said. “He prepared the beginning of the year for that tournament. When we were at the Players in March on the range, he’s going, ‘Let’s hit some shots I have to hit at Augusta.’ He was hitting the drive he needed on 13, certain irons he needed into greens.
“He was ready.”
McNamara said Woods put blinders on that week.
“It was probably the most serious I had ever seen him at a tournament,” he said. “He was laser focused.”
Woods began with a 70 and then followed with a 66 to reach the first page of the leaderboard. A third-round 68 put him atop the famous white scoreboards by one shot. His playing competitor in the final group on the final day was none other than Phil Mickelson, who was still in search of his first major.
“The atmosphere, the roars, the excitement, it was off the charts,” said Jim “Bones” Mackay, Mickelson’s longtime caddie. “Everyone wanted to see Tiger.
“And why not? His swing was beautiful, and it looked like nothing could go wrong. And if something happened, like the wind came up or whatever and he did miss a green, you’re talking about a guy who had the best short game in the world and he’s the best putter in the world and the best pressure putter in the game.
“He was just incredibly difficult to beat. It was frustrating.”
Tiger Woods and his caddie Steve Williams walk across the Byron Nelson Bridge during the final round of the 2001 Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
Woods started the final 18 with a bogey but rebounded with birdies on Nos. 2, 7 and 8. Mickelson held a share of the lead on four of the first five holes but made bogey on six and never got another share of the lead.
“I can honestly say that Phil’s front nine was the best nine holes of golf I’ve ever seen from everyone,” said Steve Williams, who was on Woods’ bag for 13 of his 15 major wins. “Exact precision. He placed his ball in the exact spot it needed to be. He made the putts he could make.
“It was incredible for me to see Tiger hang with him. But he was grinding, grinding, grinding. Phil didn’t maintain it on the back nine, which was probably impossible to do. And then Tiger flipped the switch on the back nine.”
David Duval, also in search of his first major, started the final round three shots behind but made birdies on seven of his first 10 holes. He held a share of the lead on three occasions on the back nine but a bogey on the 16th – where he missed an 8-footer – and pars on the 17th and 18th – he missed a six-footer for birdie on the final hole – left him short by two and in solo second.
“It was incredibly difficult to beat Tiger back then,” said Duval, who finished runner-up for the second time in four years and was in the top 6 in the other two Masters. “As a competitor, you had to play flawless golf. We all hit bad golf shots and we all made mistakes, including Tiger, but back then you knew his were going to be very few and far between. You had to be spot on competing against him.
“You were playing against arguably the greatest player who ever was. He was unbelievable. His mental game was as good as anybody’s ever; his physical game was as good as anybody’s ever. And he undoubtedly during that time played the best golf that was ever played.
“That was my fourth straight year I could have won the Masters and I didn’t win any of them, so it’s tough to remember details from back then. I remember I didn’t capitalize and missed some putts on 17 and 18 and you just can’t give a guy like Tiger Woods a chance to bury you. Whenever he had a chance, he buried you.”
Mickelson’s undoing came on the 16th when he left his tee shot on the wrong shelf and missed an 8-footer for par. He made pars on the final two holes and finished three behind.
“The 16th was the killer for me,” Mickelson said 20 years later. “I had pulled within one shot, had the honors, and pulled the 7-iron. I didn’t give myself a chance to put more pressure on him.
“It was really frickin’ hard to play Tiger back then. I’ve said the greatest golf in the history of the game that has ever been played was the 2000 U.S. Open. Back then, he hit it so far and so straight and he was such a clutch putter, you felt like you had to play perfect golf to beat him. And perfect golf was not my forte. My forte was to try and make a bunch of birdies and be aggressive.
“I don’t remember the specifics of the round but I do remember coming to the last hole and I was two back and I knew he could fly the tree (on the right) and he’d have 60 yards or something to the hole and it was like, ‘How is the guy going to bogey with a sand wedge going in?’
“I remember feeling distraught on the 18th tee. That round, as long as he hit it and as straight as he hit it, you just couldn’t see him making any mistakes to open the door and that’s tough to deal with.”
Woods never lost at least a share of the lead, with key moments unfolding on the 11th, where he hit a 4-iron to a foot for birdie, a two-putt birdie on the 13th, and overcoming a 3-foot miss for birdie on the 15th. Leading Duval by one and Mickelson by two, Woods capped his virtuoso performance with a huge drive on 18 that set up a sand wedge from 75 yards and a birdie from 18 feet.
Tiger Woods celebrates after winning the 2001 Masters on the 18th green at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
After victory was secured, Woods buried his face in his cap and shed a few tears.
“I finally had no other shots to play. That was it. It was done,” Woods said that day. “It was such a weird feeling. Then I started thinking, I had just won the Masters. Then I started losing it a little bit.”
His post-round interview with the media was interrupted by President George H. W. Bush, who offered his congratulations.
In his landmark victory, Woods made 23 birdies and led the field in greens in regulation (82 percent) and driving distance (305.5-yard average). He earned a clean sweep of the majors in 294 days and was 65-under par in the four championships, winning by a combined 26 shots. And he had won five of the last six majors played.
“To win four consecutive majors, if you look at my career, I don’t think I have ever accomplished anything this great,’” Woods said. “It’s hard to believe, really, because there’s so many things that go into winning a major championship. You’ve got to have some luck. You have to get some breaks. You have to have everything go right. To have it go right four straight times, some of the golf gods are looking on me the right way.
“I have a better appreciation for winning a major championship,” Woods said. “To win four of them in succession, it’s hard to believe.”
Woods finished in a tie for 12th in his bid for a fifth consecutive major in the U.S. Open two months later at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma. But in a 36-tournament stretch on the PGA Tour starting with the 1999 PGA Championship and ending with the 2001 Masters, Woods won 17 times.
“It’s fair to say no golfer has performed at that level for that stretch of time,” Williams said. “As great a player Tiger has been for his entire career, this was Tiger at his all-time best. The U.S. Open at Pebble and the Open Championship at St. Andrews were as close to perfection for the greatest player of the modern era.
“I think the Tiger Slam is his single greatest achievement in golf. No player has ever been under greater scrutiny as Tiger was during the 2001 Masters, and to pull it off was simply incredible.”
As good as it gets
While Woods has delivered other memorable masterpieces and stretches of golf – the 1997 Masters, 2008 U.S. Open, 2019 Masters – those who had front-row seats to his brilliance during his journey to four consecutive majors say it was the best golf he ever teed up and remains vivid in their memories 20 years later.
“He was unimaginably good,” said Brandel Chamblee, Golf Channel analyst and former PGA Tour player who won the 1998 Greater Vancouver Open. “You could never conceive of a player like Tiger in that time. There had never been a player who was the best at so many areas of the game. You could find problems in everybody’s game, but Tiger was the longest and straightest driver in the game in that period, he was by far the best iron player, he was a Seve-esque scrambler, and he was the best putter anybody had ever seen. And then he was mentally the strongest player the game’s ever had.
“I make comparisons all the time to literature but no one could conceive of a character in literature more troubled and brilliant than Hamlet, and Tiger was that brilliant and untroubled. He was Hamlet. You can’t even imagine the guy. Well, there’s the guy, the greatest character in literature, more real than actual human beings. And that was Tiger.”
Azinger tied for 15th in the 2001 Masters, nine strokes back, and can still picture the genius that was Woods back then.
Tiger Woods reacts to making the final, winning putt at the 2001 Masters. (Photo: Timothy A, Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
“He made the extraordinary shot, made the extraordinary chip, made the extraordinary putt. He won playoffs. He won back-nine duels. He did what he had to do. He was the most opportunistically successful player in the history of golf. I’m not trying to blow smoke. He was just something to see.”
Mackay said you had to be there to truly appreciate the wonder of Woods.
“I would almost say that people who missed that era that think they know about it probably don’t know about it. You can certainly read about it,” Mackay said. “But to see it in person and whether you were trying to beat him in the same group or trying to beat him from three groups ahead, to go through all of that was just amazing. There was so much going on.
“You almost had to make decisions on occasion because you know the world had to come to an end for this guy to make a bogey. He was Tiger. You’re thinking sometimes that he can’t even do something and then he does it.
“I’m so grateful I got to see it.”
As for the name of the sweep? Grand Slam? Tiger Slam? Some insist it can’t be called the Grand Slam because if didn’t occur in the same calendar year. Others don’t care.
“I don’t know how you don’t call that a Grand Slam,” Duval said 20 years later. “If you’re in possession of all four of them and have won them in succession, it’s a Grand Slam. I just think those people that say it wasn’t a Grand Slam, that’s just them trying to take away whatever little bit they can away from Tiger.”
Harmon has always had a direct answer when he’s been asked.
“I just say there has never been a human being who walked on the planet Earth who has ever done what Tiger did by winning four consecutive majors,” Harmon said. “So you can call it whatever the hell you want.
There’s something about rehashing media-saturated events — like Tiger Woods’ 10-month stretch that netted all four of golf’s majors — that always has me assuming I’ll be as disappointed as the first listen on a “new” Beatles song that’s just been unearthed.
There’s typically a reason why the highlights deserved to be the highlights.
And while there’s not a ton of new ground broken in “Tiger Slam,” the Golf Channel documentary hoping to capitalize on the audience of Sunday’s “The Match II,” it’s great theater presented with a new and modern twist. The film will premiere on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Golf Channel.
Maybe it’s the charisma that Emmy Award-winning actor Michael Kenneth Williams (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire) brings through narration. Maybe it’s the pace, which doesn’t feel like a typical golf documentary.
Or maybe it’s a few zingers you weren’t expecting.
Like one in which longtime swing coach Butch Harmon talks about how Woods called and said he’d finally had that magical light bulb go off, this after a long stretch of tinkering. Woods was already a wunderkind. He wanted to be a legend.
And after calling to tell Harmon he’d felt something fall perfectly into place, the two joined with a few others to play a round near Harmon’s school in Las Vegas.
Despite difficult conditions, Woods shot a 64 and showed the form that Harmon knew would mean a transformation of the golf world. This came with a huge tournament looming in Pebble Beach.
“Quite frankly,” Harmon said, “we all rushed to the casinos to bet on Tiger Woods to win the U.S. Open.
“It was a profitable week. Let’s put it that way.”
Sure, it’s a story that’s been told before, but it adds to the intrigue and drama of the film, and reminds how even when things were seemingly perfect, Tiger and his team avoided landmines along the way. The backstory with Bob May is well-known, too, but still fun to reminisce on.
All told, the slick, impressive film is certainly worth your time, and even though much of the tune is one you likely already know, it’s told in such impressive fashion that you certainly won’t mind humming along.
Golf Channel announced details of its new film Tiger Slam, the story of Tiger Woods’ four major championships over a 10-month stretch.
Golf Channel announced Wednesday its new film Tiger Slam, the story of Tiger Woods winning all four major championships over a 10-month stretch, will premiere May 24 at 8 p.m. ET.
Created by Golf Channel’s Emmy-nominated GOLF Films, Tiger Slam features interviews with those closest to Woods as he won a historic four major titles from June 2000 to April 2001. Participants include journalists like Rick Reilly and Scott Van Pelt and former competitors like Jack Nicklaus and David Duval.
In addition to insight from those involved in Woods’ four-major run, the film details Woods’ four-straight major victories along with memorable highlights and footage.
The film will be presented by CDW and US Bank with limited commercial interruption.
The film will be released after the final two installments of the 10-part series The Last Dance, chronicling the final year of NBA star Michael Jordan’s career with the Chicago Bulls, are broadcast on ESPN on Sunday.
