By Alex Myers
One of the oddest and lesser-known things about Tiger Woods’ incredible career is that he hasn’t had a hole-in-one in competition since 1998. Making the drought even weirder is that Woods made one in each of his first three seasons as a pro. So getting your hands on one of those three golf balls is difficult — unless Tiger happened to toss one to you himself.
Such is the case for Bob Gustin, who was behind the par-3 14th green at Brown Deer Golf Park during the final round of the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open when Woods jarred a 6-iron for an ace in his professional debut. Gustin and his brother-in-law begged the budding superstar for the ball, and after Tiger plucked his Titleist from the hole, he flipped a piece of history in their direction.
As if that wasn’t cool enough, Gustin managed to get the ball autographed by Tiger, and it’s been a prized possession since. But now he’s going to turn it into a huge pay day after deciding to put the golf treasure up for auction.
“Whatever it goes for, I’m splitting that with my brother-in-law, David,” Gustin told Golf.com. “He’s the one who shouted, ‘Throw it over here!’ He’s the one who it deflected off of before it came to me. We both had a part in me ending up with this ball, so we’ll both enjoy it after it goes to someone else.”
And it should go for a lot. Considering a piece of cardboard — the handwritten leaderboard — with Woods’ name on it recently sold for $69,000, and a ticket from the event sold for $99,000 earlier this year, this golf ball is bound to fetch a pretty penny.
According to Heritage Auctions, “It unquestionably ranks among the finest artefacts of Tiger Woods peerless career ever made available at public auction.”
No arguments here. And in case you’re interested, bidding ends at midnight on November 18. Good luck.
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