Augusta family's final-round ticket to 1934 Masters Tournament hits auction block
Some of the world’s most ardent sports memorabilia collectors will bid Wednesday on one of the last surviving tickets to the very first Masters Tournament.
Even the Augusta family that owns it hasn’t hazarded a guess of what price the rare golf item will fetch at auction. The sale is through Christie’s New York and sports memorabilia auctioneers Hunt Bros.
“I think they put a lot of faith in this relationship that they started with Christie’s to get whatever bids this may bring,” said a Christie’s spokesman who asked that neither he nor the family be identified.
A page on Christie’s website describing the ticket, also called a “badge,” listed a suggested opening bid between $200,000 and $400,000.
That's the ticket: One of the last tickets to 1934 Masters Tournament to be auctioned, asking six figures
Christie’s describes the ticket’s original owners only as Augusta residents who owned a local retail business and have been prominent community and civic leaders.
According to family lore, the spokesman said, the young couple had just watched Horton Smith preserve his one-stroke lead to win the 1934 Masters. As Smith walked toward the Augusta National Golf Club’s iconic oak tree, the wife successfully asked for his penciled autograph on the upper-left side of the diamond-shaped ticket.
The story suggests that the autograph is the very first given by Smith immediately after winning the Masters, which was called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament until 1939.
The badge has spent many years in a family safety deposit box at an Augusta bank – particularly since the local tournament’s popularity exploded internationally. The cardboard ticket, with its connecting string still intact, has stayed in superb condition with virtually no wear.
The family, the spokesman said, “felt like over the past many years the Masters has sort of elevated to that top tier of important golf tournaments, and this badge was just sitting in a bank-vault-type situation. They decided for the public to see such an important piece of golf history and Augusta history.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Rare 1934 Masters ticket signed by first champion could find new buyer
