There are only a handful of pieces of sports memorabilia that we can be relatively certain will be collected for centuries - Babe Ruth's bat; Muhammad Ali's gloves; Michael Jordan's jerseys. When it comes to golf, there's one such item that we would add to the list above all others - Tiger Woods' red dot Scotty Cameron putter.
Offered here is one of Tiger Woods' actual Scotty Cameron Newport II putters from 2001 - produced by Scotty for Tiger himself in the midst of the Tiger Slam. Now, this was not the putter that Tiger used to win 14 of his 15 Major Championships; that putter is still owned and frequently used by Tiger. Golden Age's Ryan Carey was interviewed last year for a piece on the Golf Channel with Tiger, and Ryan valued that putter at $3 million-$5 million. The offered putter is what's famously known as a Tiger Woods "backup" - a putter produced for Tiger to practice with and experiment with should he decide to switch putters, or should something happen to the original putter and a backup needed to be called into duty. According to Scotty Cameron, he only produced 1 or 2 "backup" putters for Tiger each year they worked together. Tiger would often try out the backups, and even practice with them to ensure they were to his liking, but (so the legend goes) Tiger only used his one trusty gamer in actual tournament play.
As you can imagine, since only a small handful of Tiger Woods Scotty Cameron backup putters were ever produced, even fewer have left Tiger's orbit and reached the collector market. Surely any Tiger Woods putter is highly valuable, but offered here is an actual putter of Tiger's from 2001 - when Tiger's career was at its peak. The most recent Tiger Woods backup putter to reach the auction block was early 2019 when we sold a different variation for $88,809.
Tiger Woods backup putters often vary slightly from his famous original. For instance, some are stamped "T.W." on the toe; others are produced in a later style or have slightly different lines or are missing the sight dot; many have a Scotty Cameron grip that Tiger himself has never put into play. But the offered example is a true backup to Tiger Woods' legendary gamer. His exact specs, his exact stamping - even Tiger's preferred PING grip.
This putter comes with a certificate of authenticity from Scotty Cameron, who describes it as "Made for Tiger Woods."
*UPDATE 1: Golf Magazine's Managing Editor and equipment guru Jonathan Wall states "this particular backup is the closest thing to Woods' gamer." He goes on to state that "it's fair to say the putter should cross the six-figure threshold."
**UPDATE 2: Celebrated Scotty Cameron expert, author, and super collector Bill "Vog" Vogeney tweeted about this auction and putter - "This is the closest 'backup' I have seen to the original. Period."