A full week pass to the first Masters tournament in 1934, autographed by 17 of the 61 players who competed, has sold privately for $600,000, setting a new record for the most paid for a collectible sports ticket.
The transaction, which was conducted through Golden Age Golf Auctions, broke a record set just three weeks earlier when one of only seven known stubs from Jackie Robinson’s historic 1947 major league debut sold for $480,000 at Heritage Auctions. The lone full ticket to Michael Jordan’s 1984 NBA debut sold in the same auction for $468,000, a figure that also surpassed the previous record.
“The ticket was originally sold by golf memorabilia dealer Byron Eder for $50,000 approximately 15 years ago,” Ryan Carey of Golden Age told us. “It was believed to be the highest price ever paid for a ticket at the time. It has been in the same private collection ever since.”
Carey says the buyer has asked to remain anonymous for now but is an avid sports collector who believes that golf memorabilia is undervalued compared to the rest of the market.
Only a small number of inaugural Masters tickets have survived to this day, with the weeklong “series” tickets much rarer than the single day passes with only three known copies, one of which is in the possession of Augusta National.
The first Masters, then called the “Augusta National Invitational Tournament” was won by Horton Smith, who shot a four under par 284.
Smith signed the pass in pencil along with legendary competitors Bobby Jones and Walter Hagan and 14 others. Both Jones and Hagen shot six over par and finished out of the money.
Sportswriting icon Grantland Rice also signed the ticket for a total of 18 autographs.
In 2018, an unsigned final day ticket to the inaugural Masters sold for $118,598, setting what was at the time a record for any sports ticket.
In 2013, Smith’s green jacket–the first of the now famous sport coat traditionally given to Masters winners–sold at auction for $682,229.
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