Auction gaffe nets Tiger Woods fan big money

An auction mishap helped a quick-thinking Tiger Woods fan make $3,000 off the back of a piece of rare memorabilia.

The savvy collector spotted a ball which was listed by an unnamed UK auction house as having been signed by golf legend Tom Watson, and paid $43 for the item, as confirmed by The Collectibles Guru on Twitter.

However, the signature on the Titleist ball actually belonged to Woods, and it has since been sold on for $3,037 at Golden Age Auctions.

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Despite sharing initials, Woods and Watson’s signatures are clearly very different, so it is not clear how the incident happened.

Memorabilia from Woods’ stellar professional career has been going for a premium this year, with another signed ball – used when he had a hole-in-one on his professional debut at the Greater Milwaukee Open in 1996 – selling for $186,000.

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Earlier this week a trademark signed red shirt worn by the 15-time major winner in the final round of the 2010 Masters went for $140,000.

But the biggest buy was a set of irons reported to have been used during Woods’ legendary Tiger Slam of 2000 and 2001, which sold for more than $5million despite doubts being cast over their authenticity.