The Open Championship is one of the biggest and hardest tournaments to win, and only a few lucky ones can triumph at the links courses. One of them is John Daly. In his decade-long career, the 58-year-old won only two majors, the Open in 1995 and the PGA Championship in 1991. After winning the Open, the R&A offers the Claret Jug to the winner for one year which is a replica, a 90% of the size of the original.

However, after 2 decades in 2015, the 2-time major champion sold this replica to someone in Harrington, England, and now in the 2024 season, the replica of his 1995 victory at St. Andrews, Scotland, is up in the auction once again. The Golden Age Auctions are bidding for Daly’s 1995 Open’s Claret Jug replica. The bid started at $500, but after 48 bids (as of publication), it has come up to $30,164, and there are eight more days before the auction may end.

Last time in 2018, Daly, who had sold one of the two replicas of his Claret Jug, posted a tweet when one was being sold at Heritage Auction valued at more than $100,000. There was a bit of confusion regarding ownership, as Daly clarified he was not the one selling it, but the auction house cleared it that it was one replica that Daly sold in 2015. That piece has once again resurfaced, and this time it may get sold for more than $100,000, as it was sold at $66,000 in 2022.

To avoid any confusion this time, the Golden Age Auction has also provided a letter of authenticity from the 5-time PGA Tour winner with his signature. This news comes three months after Gary Player’s Claret Jug auction created a ruckus and a legal matter in the golf world.

While John Daly’s jug auctions, what happened to Player’s?

In August, Gary Player’s Claret Jug replica from winning the Open Championship in 1974 was up on the Golden Age Auction. It was sold for a whopping $481,068. The replica was first sold in November 2020 at $143,020, and both times, Player issued a statement against it. According to the 9-time major champion, he never allowed his replicas to be sold anywhere.

In a statement released on X, Played explained, “Neither of the 1974 Masters Trophy nor the 1974 Open Trophy were sold by me or by one of my companies” and clarified that the person was selling them without his consent and against his wishes. In turn, the Golden Age Auction House also revealed that Player was “well aware of those sales back in 2020, and he was aware of them when he made these contradictory statements today.”

They also explained that the replica was sold because the South African pro’s company, Black Knight International, had serious cash flow issues and thus privately sold the replica Claret Jug. However, despite this, Player had shared that his team was seeking legal action against the auction. To this day, it hasn’t been disclosed if the 9-time major winner won or lost or even took any actions, but it was certain that he was against the auction.

As for John Daly’s 1995 Open replica, the 5-time PGA Tour winner has not come forward to disregard anything, and as the days are progressing, the bid for his Open memorabilia is only going to increase; it may even break the Player’s record.