Horton Smith's

1936 Masters Tournament

Winning Putter

        The Inaugural Masters Champion Horton Smith has a cult following among collectors – not unlike the allure of Honus Wagner items to the baseball collecting community. Whenever a piece of Horton Smith memorabilia comes up for auction, the collecting community takes notice. You likely already know about our recent sale of Horton Smith’s Green Jacket for the highest price ever paid for a piece of golf memorabilia - $682,299. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Horton Smith memorabilia. Some other examples of recent Horton Smith sales by Green Jacket Auctions: Horton Smith used wedge: $21,539; Horton Smith signed golf ball: $11,000.

Horton Smith’s 1936 Masters Winning Putter

        The title “Greatest Putter of All-Time” is certainly up for debate. Not up for debate is that of the millions of golfers that have ever lived, Horton Smith may very well be the greatest putter of them all.

        But don’t take our word for it. Horton himself wrote a book called “The Secret of Holing Putts”. He received some pretty decent forwards for his tome on the art of putting – none other than Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones. And the great sportswriter Grantland Rice once said "Horton is the finest all-around putter I ever saw. And I've seen Walter J. Travis and Jerry Travers at their best. I've seen Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen when they were 'hot'. But Smith has a certain smoothness in stroking every type of putt that lifts him above them all."

        Offered here is the only putter passed down in the Horton Smith family – the actual Walter Hagen model putter attributed to Horton Smith's victory at the 1936 Masters Tournament.

        Despite being one of the greatest putters in history, this is the only putter of Horton’s that has been passed down in his family (the only other known Horton Smith Tournament-Used putter is his 1934 Masters Tournament putter, which is in the possession of Augusta National Golf Club’s private collection). It is also one of only a handful of Horton Smith’s personal golf clubs that were passed down in his family, and is likely the most significant of the bunch.

        We believe this Walter Hagen model putter that was personally used by Horton Smith and attributed to his 1936 Masters Tournament victory to be the most significant and valuable Horton Smith club ever offered for sale. Its significance exceeds that of Horton’s wedge that sold for $21,539 in our Summer 2013 Golf Auction.

        Letter of Provenance from Horton Smith family.