Thursday, February 22, 2007

Real Tiger Woods Putter on eBay?

A little over a year ago, I visited a local golf store and came across an authentic backup to Tiger Woods' Scotty Cameron putter. I really wanted this putter, but I wasn't ready to give my life's savings for it!

As with any high-priced items, there are scumbags out there that make cheap knock-offs to scam unsuspecting consumers. One such scoundrel had the nerve to link his fake Tiger Woods' putter eBay listing to this site as some sort of mark of legitimacy! I tried to foil his plot by telling people who visited that link to have any rare Cameron authenticated prior to purchase. Unfortunately, some poor bastard still shelled out over $300 for this POS. Oh well, buyer beware.

Recently a reader emailed me about another eBay auction for a Tiger Woods' Scotty Cameron putter. With such auctions, it is better to assume guilty (fake) until proven innocent rather than vice versa. But upon closer inspection, it appears that this auction may indeed be legit. First, there is a photo of the putter in front of a Certificate of Authenticity. Second, I ran the registry number from the certificate at the Scotty Cameron Registry and it shows up as registered. The only thing that looks suspicious is the "Letter of Authenticity" signed by Scotty Cameron. You would expect such a letter to be written on more official looking company letterhead and written in the first-person. However, the signature looks like Scotty's.

I decided to do a little more research. I emailed the Scotty Cameron Shop and they replied, "If the putter has a COA then its authentic. As for being made for Tiger that is not stated on the COA nor the number made. Thanks." I checked the forums at the Cameron Collector and found a thread dedicated to this auction. The experts there seemed to think that the auction was legit.

Regardless, bidders of this auction clearly think that it's legit. There's still 4 days remaining in this auction and the bid price has already exceeded $30K. That's a lot of moolah for a single golf club. For the winning bidder's sake, I hope that the putter is real...

3 comments:

Speedcat Hollydale said...

This would be a great putter to own, but 30,000.00 dollars?? Holy Smokes!

Anonymous said...

Sheesh. I'd hate to dole out $30K and find out it's phony. "Thinking" it's legit wouldn't be good enough for me, unless I'm Warren Buffet and have billions to toss around. (Actually, I don't think Warren what chance it either.)

Anonymous said...

I think Warren would rather donate the money if not buy himself another real estate. Personally, no matter how fanatic I am about golf, I wouldn't shell out $30k even if it were a real Scotty Cameron. If it were a fake though, shame on the person who's selling it. He has no respect for the game at all.

Tommy L. from Free Golf Tips