Weeks After Heart Surgery, PGA Tour Legend Admits One Regret He Kept Secret for 26 Years: ‘Didn’t Really Look Good’

“I threw it in the fireplace over Christmas and burned it. It was so ugly. It provided more warmth for the house.” You would be forgiven for thinking that’s a line from Seinfeld. It does have that ring of a Larry David farce. But no. It wasn’t from Seinfeld. Nor was it from a Groucho Marx movie. It was Tiger Woods.

He was talking about the 1999 Ryder Cup jersey. You know which one. The one that was more crowded with pictures than a freshman’s dorm wall. Anyways, Woods was still a youngster then. But the jersey didn’t sit well, even with veterans.

Forget that the team USA staged one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the Ryder Cup wearing that. Davis Love III, who went 1-0-3 and defeated Jean Van de Velde 6 & 5 in a wild Sunday, would rather do it wearing a different jersey.

26 years later, the PGA Tour legend can ruminate on them with a smile. Maybe a laugh. “If you look at them from a distance, they were—they were not very good-looking.” It was Captain Ben Crenshaw’s idea.

A little backstory: the USA was trailing team Europe 10-6. Crenshaw walked up to the locker room the day before and made a short speech. By short, I mean just four lines. “I’m going to leave you all with one thought, then I’m going to leave. I’m a big believer in fate. I have a good feeling about this. That’s all I’m going to tell you.”

Apparently, Crenshaw oversaw the designs. He picked the images that were supposed to go there. To inspire the team. Pictures of the victorious 1935 American Ryder Cup team, the winning 1937 team, the 1947 squad, and the 1951 American team were there.

Davis Love III, who went through open-heart surgery in January, admitted he understood the rationale. “It made a lot of sense. It felt good,” said the 21-time PGA Tour winner. But it didn’t look good. Which was also an important point behind designing iconic jerseys.

Regardless, Crenshaw’s men, inspired by the speech or to honor his creativity, pulled off one of the most inspiring comebacks in Ryder Cup history. They won eight singles on their way to a one-point victory. The legacy was cemented, and so was the t-shirt.

The 1999 Ryder Cup tee-shirt fetched big bucks

Andy Wittry, in a column for the Ryder Cup, revealed that a 1999 jersey was sold for $1,951.20. Who wore it? Apparently, no one. Who signed it? Again, no one. It was any other checkered jersey from 1999 that fetched big bucks. It’s funny to think that the bidding started at $200 and almost increased tenfold in a span of a few days.

It’s even more ironic considering the sentiment players had about it. Tiger Woods wasn’t the only one reluctant to give it legitimacy. Back in 2004, ESPN’s Mark Soltau did a cover story on the T-shirt. Or, to be precise, where are those memorabilia six years later?

Crenshaw kept a couple—yes, more than one-in his closet. A bunch of them shoved it inside the closet. Phil Mickelson had no clue. Neither did Mark O’Meara. Jeff Maggert wasn’t sure whether he still had them or had donated them to charity. Only Steve Pate framed them and sold them at a charity. It fetched around $5000.

Davis Love III kept it with other Sunday shirts he wore during his 21 PGA Tour titles. He has two of them. One was drenched in sweat, sorry, champagne after the victory. So every team member wore a different one during the presentation ceremony. Some, though, wish the second one were a different one.