John Daly puts Claret Jug up for sale

John Daly has never been afraid to hawk his own merchandise.

Since 2007, the two-time major champ has used Masters week to sell his own branded goods in a car park just a stone’s throw from Augusta National, with all proceeds going towards his children’s charity ‘Team Lion’.

Baseball caps, trousers, photos – you name it, Daly has a price for it.

Now, though, the 51-year-old is selling off one of his most prized possessions: a replica of the Claret Jug he won at St Andrews in 1995.

Like all Open champions, Daly was allowed to keep the actual Claret Jug for a year but could also buy replicas to permanently commemorate his victory in golf’s oldest professional championship.

It is understood that he bought two of them, with one currently up for auction through Heritage Auctions.

At the time of writing, the high bid was $30,000, with two weeks of the auction left to run. It is reckoned that it could fetch as much as $100,000. Daly’s cheque for winning the tournament was $199,375.

“This gorgeous silver prize stands as a closing bookend of sorts for one of the sport’s great talents and cautionary tales,” says the accompanying blurb on the Heritage Auctions site. “As any serious golf collector is aware, the Claret Jug that symbolizes the British Open Championship is a perpetual trophy, with personal trophies a scaled-down replica of that famous hardware.

“This is indeed the one and only Daly Claret Jug available to the collecting public.”

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