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Agent says Tiger Slam clubs not legit; Auction co-founder hits back: ‘We faced this last time they sold’

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Yesterday, GolfWRX reported that the clubs used for Tiger Woods’ legendary Tiger Slam in 2000 and 2001 were up for auction.

At the time of reporting, the current top bid was $297,955, with the close of auction dated for Masters Sunday, the 9th of April.

However, according to Golf Digest’s Dan Rapaport, there is a question-mark over the set’s authenticity. In a tweet posted yesterday afternoon, Rapaport said:

”Update—Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg denied the legitimacy of the irons. Tiger has the authentic set of the Slam irons his house,” he said when reached for comment.”

Golden Age Auctions are standing by the provenance of the lot, owned by businessman Tod Brock for the past 12 years, commenting, “We would not put anything up for sale we weren’t wholly confident in.”

Bidding had moved on to $327,750 by the time of the tweet and is now at $527,846 at the time of this piece. The clubs are expected to fetch seven figures by the close of the auction.

“I got to enjoy them for 11-12 years,” said Brock on his reason for selling after paying just $57,242 for the irons in 2010. “I live a boring life. I don’t entertain a whole lot, so they weren’t getting the eyes on them that they deserve.”

On the GolfWRX Facebook page, co-founder of Golden Age Golf Auctions, Bob Zafian, further refuted the claims reportedly made by Steinberg that the irons were not authentic. Zafian wrote: 

“I got these myself back then from a VP at Titleist. Then I hired a polygraph examiner, and there’s much more proof and affidavits.”, and added “We faced this last time they sold. Not unexpected.”

Current owner and co-founder of Golden Age Golf Auctions, has also come out to defend the listing saying: 

“The two Titleist executives who were in charge of Tiger’s clubs have signed sworn affidavits asserting their legitimacy, one took a polygraph and passed it, and the original buyer in 2010 did his due diligence as well.

And just take a look at the 8-iron wear mark. That club was clearly struck in the dead center thousands of times by the greatest ball-striker in the world. If Tiger believes he has these clubs at his house, we’d love to see them.

This is what we do. And this is my livelihood. I would not put anything up for sale that I wasn’t wholly confident in.”

It’s worth noting that back in 2020 when Tiger showed off his impressive golf club collection from his home, the only ‘Tiger Slam’ club that Woods showed the cameras was his driver.

The final offer will surely beat the current most expensive lot in golf history – the first green jacket won by Horton Smith – sold for $682,000 at auction in 2013, and this debate can only fuel the publicity and, ultimately, more bids.

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19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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