The Augusta National green jacket that belonged to Horton Smith, winner of the first Masters Tournament in 1934, is up for auction and is expected to fetch more than $US 100,000.
Bidding began over the weekend at www.greenjacketauctions.com and with a big already over $60,000.
Horton Smith winner of the inaugural 1934 Masters at Augusta National
The auction site specializes in golf memorabilia and has sold several rare Masters items in the past.
Bidding for one of the most sought after items of apparel in golf ends on September 7th and if the reserve price of $100,000 is not reached then the auction said it would still be one of the highest prices ever paid for a piece of golf memorabilia.
Augusta National Golf Club first awarded the green jacket in 1949 to Sam Snead. Jackets also were given to previous winners of the tournament, including Smith, who won in 1934 and 1936.
According to the auction house, Smith’s jacket was presumed to be lost but last month www.greenjacketauctions.com was contacted by one of his relatives.
The green jacket had been hanging in a closet for decades.
FOOTNOTE –
Smith was born in Springfield, Missouri. He turned professional in 1926 and won his first tournament, the Oklahoma City Open in 1928.
In 1929 he won eight titles.
This was an era of expansion and reorganization for professional golf.
The PGA Tour was founded in 1934, and Smith was one of the leading players of the early years of the tour, topping the money list in 1936. He accumulated 32 PGA Tour titles in total, the last of them in 1941.
Smith’s two major championships both came at the Masters Tournament, the first at the inaugural tournament in 1934 and the second in 1936.
He played in every Masters until his death in 1963.
He played for the United States in the Ryder Cup five times: 1929, 1931, 1933, 1935, and 1937. His career Ryder Cup record was 3-0-1, his only blemish a halved singles match against Bill Cox in 1935 at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey.
Smith also was the only golfer to defeat Bobby Jones in 1930 (Savannah Open), the year of Jones’ Grand Slam.
