by Tiger Woods’ winning ball at the 1997 Masters could be gone forever after a billionaire admitted he doesn’t know where the extremely valuable artifact is. The ball ended up in the hands of Warren Stephens’ son, but its current location is unclear.
Stephens is the founder of the Alotian Club and his father, Jackson T. Stephens, was once chairman of Augusta National. He and his son were there the day Woods won the Masters 27 years ago.
His eldest son was on the 18th hole when Woods sealed his first major tournament. Stephens claims the ball ended up in his son’s hands, likely thanks to the golf icon himself.
But despite the fact that it would likely sell for millions, the 67-year-old is unsure of its current location.
Speaking to the Golfer’s Journal podcast, Stephens revealed: “My oldest son was 11, he was sitting on 18 when Tiger left. Tiger or Fluff put the ball, gave the ball to our son.
“Now the million dollar question is, where is it? And I’m not 100% sure. I’m not really sure. Um, I think we still have it somewhere. . . . Well, it’s probably somewhere in our house.”
Woods-related memorabilia has sold for huge sums of money in recent years. A set of irons he used during the dominant period from 2000 to 2001 sold for 3.9 million pounds ($5.15 million).
Even a piece of the scoreboard from the 48-year-old’s first PGA Tour start went for £53,000 ($69,000).
Woods’ last major tournament was at the Masters in 2019. He has since struggled with his form and fitness, largely due to the injuries he sustained in a car accident in 2021.
But fans still can’t get enough of Woods and even Harry Kane admitted he left his family to play a round of golf with the American in 2017. Speaking on the Rick Shiels Golf Show, the England captain said: “It’s a great story.” I was in the Bahamas and didn’t know he was there – everywhere we go there are buggies everywhere.
“So I was traveling in a buggy and I drove past a golf pro I knew there and he asked, ‘Oh H, how are you?’ and just caught up with him, I hadn’t seen him in a while.
“He said, ‘Oh, by the way, I’m playing with Tiger this afternoon. Do you want to play?’ It was like one of them said, “Yes! Just call me,” because the way he said it, I didn’t want to seem over the top, I just said, “Give me a text when you play.”
Kane went to a friend’s house for lunch, where there was barely any phone reception, adding: “So I’m sitting there at lunch thinking, ‘I hope he doesn’t text me,’ after a few hours I get lunch.” As I went out and went to our house, three or four text messages came at once. The golf pro said, “Tiger said come play the back nine with us,” and that was about an hour ago.
The Bayern Munich striker finally caught up with Woods on the 15th hole and revealed he played another round with the golfer the next morning – despite only spending four days in the Bahamas.
