GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
There is a ton of demand for memorabilia linked to Tiger Woods, and collectors will pay a pretty penny for basically any items associated with the legendary golfer. That includes a couple of trophies he won when he was still in elementary school, which fetched a very tidy sum after hitting the auction block.
On October 6, 1978, the world got its first glimpse at an up-and-coming golfer named Tiger Woods, who was only two years old when he got the chance to show off his skills in front of Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart on The Mike Douglas Show.
That young talent would more than live up to the hype that only continued to grow as he did the same, and a little less than two decades later, he announced his grand arrival while putting his fellow golfers on notice with his 12-stroke win at The Masters in 1997.
That marked his fourth of what would end up being 82 wins on the PGA Tour, and the man who earned 15 victories at major tournaments has managed to amass more than a few trophies over the course of his professional career.
He also compiled his fair share before he turned pro, and two of them made his former mentor a significant chunk of dough after they were put up for auction.
A couple of trophies from Tiger Woods’ childhood were sold for over $50,000
If you’re lucky enough to end up with some memorabilia involving Tiger in your possession, there’s a very good chance you’ll find someone willing to fork over a sizeable sum of money to take it off your hands.
In 2022, the irons he used to win four majors in a row between 2000 and 2001 sold for $5.15 million, and that same year, the signature red shirt he donned for the final round of The Masters in 2010 fetched close to $140,000.
There was once a time when it felt like every golfer who entered a tournament Woods was competing in was essentially vying for second place, and it’s safe to assume that was also the case with many of the events he played in as a kid.
There’s no telling how many tournaments he won when he was growing up, but based on a couple of trophies that recently went up for auction, we do know he was the low scorer two competitions held at Heartwell Golf Course (a par-3 track in Long Beach, California) in 1983 and 1984 (when he was 7 and 8 years old, respecitvely).
According to the auction listing, those trophies ended up in the hands of Joe Grohman, a “family friend” who initially met Woods when he was working as the assistant pro at the Navy Golf Course in Cypress. They stayed in his possession for over 35 years before he decided to put them up for sale, and the trophies received 44 bids that drove the price up from $500 to the $52,995.60 they ultimately sold for when the auction ended on Sunday.
Not too shabby.