A 21-year-old Tiger Woods had graduated from Stanford University just a year ago when he stepped onto the Augusta National in April 1997. He had finished at T41 in 95′ and missed the cut in 96′. But Woods had already made an impact in golf winning three PGA Tour titles before stepping on the course. Within a span of four days, the GOAT made history by becoming the youngest golfer to win the Masters Tournament.

The 1997 Masters win was historic for Tiger Woods by all accounts. Winning his first major against greats like Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Vijay Singh, Lee Westwood, Jack Nicklaus, and Phil Mickelson. And it wasn’t any ordinary win. No one on the field had gone past the score of 6-under par 282. No one other than Woods, of course. Not only was he the youngest winner of the tournament, but he also secured a win by the biggest margin at Augusta National. The 82x PGAT winner had a whopping 12-stroke lead against everyone on the field.

Woods managed to score 18-under par 270 on an extremely tough field. The win introduced him as one of the best golfers in the world to the fans. Everyone was thrilled about the fact that a 21-year-old had such a triumphant run at Augusta National. So, one of the balls that Woods used in his first Green Jacket has finally been sold for a crazy price.

After bogeying the fifth hole of the final round, Woods handed the ball to a 9-year-old Julian Nexsen. The young fan treasured the Titleist ball for all these years. As reported by ESPN, on March 27, 2025, Nexsen started an auction for the golf ball stamped ‘Tiger’ for $500 on Golden Age Auctions. However, what he didn’t expect was that golf fans would go crazy trying to get their hands on this iconic ball. The bids went up to $64,124 before finally getting sold to one of the bidders.

The huge selling price of the Tiger Woods memorabilia left everyone baffled. Golden Age Auctions released a statement about it saying, “Unless Tiger himself or his caddie Fluff intentionally saved a ball from this historic final round (which we doubt), this may be the only confirmed golf ball from the final round of Tiger Woods’ first major championship victory.” So unless the fans see the GOAT himself auctioning one of his collectibles from 1997, this might very well be the last piece of history that was sold on the auctioning portal.

Many people saw Tiger Woods hand the ball to Julian Nexsen. It was also reported by the Washington Times newspaper in one of their columns. In fact, ESPN also confirmed that “Nexsen has signed a legal declaration certifying the authenticity of the golf ball and the story of his final-round interaction with Woods.” This further verifies the authenticity of the golf ball.

Interestingly, this is not the first time one of Tiger Woods’s memorabilia has been sold for a crazy price.

Tiger Woods’s first ace is worth nearly $200,000

As reported in the same article, another one of Tiger Woods’s collectibles was auctioned off a few months ago. Back in November 2022, Heritage Auctions reported selling a golf ball that was signed by the 15x major winner himself. Woods had used that same ball when he scored his first ace as a professional in 1996.

Shockingly, the ball ended up selling for $186,000. Bob Gustin, the original owner of the ball, said that he had treasured it for the past 26 years. At first, Gustin and his brother-in-law begged Woods to throw the ball their way. Once they had possession of it, they got it signed by the GOAT after his win. After so many years, the co-owner of a construction company from Wisconsin decided to auction it off to a new owner in the Hertigate Auctions’ Fall Sports Catalog Auction.

Do you know of any other golf collectibles that have been auctioned off for a very high price recently? Let us know in the comments section.