Presented here is one of the most significant pieces of golf memorabilia ever
offered for sale - Tiger Woods' actual golf clubs used during his four straight
Major Championship victories in 2000 and 2001 - "the Tiger Slam".
The Story
Longtime Titlest Vice President Steve Mata caused
quite a stir earlier this year when he decided to part with the golf clubs given
to him by Tiger Woods when delivering a replacement set of clubs to Tiger in
2001. Mata's ownership of these historic clubs was well-known in the golfing
community. Then, in a surprise move, at a press conference during the 2010
PLAYERS Championship, Tiger Woods acknowledged that these golf clubs may be his,
but stated that they were not used during the Tiger Slam. Tiger's motives
for these comments are not known, but the comments themselves do not appear accurate.
So who
exactly is Steve Mata?
Click Here
to watch a quick feature on Steve Mata from a couple years ago.
Green Jacket Auctions was enlisted by former
Titleist VP Steve Mata to provide the necessary provenance to establish that
these clubs are not only tournament-used Tiger Woods golf clubs (still very
significant, as none have ever been sold) but are the actual golf clubs
that Tiger used during the 2000-2001 Tiger Slam and given by Tiger to Steve
Mata. Tiger may have caused us to do a little extra legwork, but that has
resulted in more evidence of authentication for these golf clubs than for any
other piece of golf memorabilia that we have ever offered:
Affidavit of Steve Mata sworn under oath and penalty of perjury
attesting to authenticity of Tiger Slam clubs;
- Polygraph results of Steve Mata establishing that these golf clubs were
actually used by Tiger Woods during the Tiger Slam;
-
September 16, 2000 GolfWeek
article by James Achenbach detailing Tiger's clubs from 2000 PGA
Championship, which match the Tiger Slam Clubs in this auction;
-
Comments by
PGA Tour player Greg Kraft to Golf Digest about his knowledge of and authenticity
of the Tiger Slam Clubs.
The Clubs
This incredible set of golf clubs
consists of every iron that was in Tiger's bag at some point during 2000 to 2001. This set consists
of a 2-Iron through Pitching Wedge, as well as two custom, hand-stamped Vokey
Wedges - that's 11 golf clubs in all. [Check out the amazing wear in the center
of the 8-iron - Tiger's favorite club to hit practice shots with!]. Here are the specs:
Irons
Each club is
stamped with a "T"
No serial
number exists on these custom irons
Lofts: most
clubs are approximately 2º weak (e.g. 2 iron is 21º).
Shaft: Dynamic
Golf X100
Lie:
approximately 1 degree upright
Swingweight:
D4
Grips: Golf
Pride Tour Velvet Cord
Wedges
Each
hand-stamped "TIGER"
Vokey 258-08:
58º with 8º of bounce on the sole, bent to 56º and hand-stamped "56º"
Vokey 260-06
(60º loft with 6º of bounce)
Shaft: Dynamic
Golf S400
Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet Cord
The Provenance
Steve Mata Affidavit
These golf clubs come with a
sworn affidavit of former Titleist VP Steve Mata attesting to the fact that
these clubs were (a) given by Tiger to Mata, and (b) used during the Tiger Slam
in 2000/2001.
Steve Mata Polygraph (Lie
Detector) Test
How confident were we that
these golf cl