An iconic photo of Tiger Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship sold Sunday night for a whopping $284,712 at auction. But that’s not half the story.
An iconic photo of Tiger Woods at the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla sold Sunday night for a whopping $284,712 at auction. But that’s not half the story. The seller purchased it for $75 earlier this year. Talk about a return on investment.
Cllct’s founder Darren Rovell brought attention to this wild story of how photographer Robert Beck sold portions of his collection on his Instagram page to raise money for the Los Angeles wildfires.
On Feb. 14, he offered three 16-inch by 20-inch prints for sale, including a picture of Woods on the first playoff hole against Bob May at the 2000 PGA when he famously pointed at the hole with his right index finger. He would go on to win the title in a three-hole aggregate playoff.
“This print has a couple of small creases in it,” Beck said. “For that reason, I’ll let it go for $75.”
Golf collector Curtis Loop snapped it up.
"Moments are the most important thing to collectors," Loop told Cllct. "This was the most iconic shot from the Tiger Slam."
Beck, who shot for Sports Illustrated, noted that the picture had been used on a cover but what intrigued Loop was its potential use as the image of Tiger’s Upper Deck rookie card, which debuted in June 2001.
“When I bought it I had no idea, but at the very least it would be a cool print to put on my wall,” Loop said.
When Loop received the photo, he discovered it was a Type 1 photo. What does that mean? Rovell explained: “A Type 1 photo, as classified by grader PSA, is a photo taken from the original negative printed within two years of the photo.”
Type 1 photos have become a hot commodity. For instance, a Type 1 photo used to create Mickey Mantle's 1951 Bowman card sold for $843,750 at Heritage Auctions in April 2024.
Loop isn’t your average collector. The former college golfer at Georgetown has been employed at golf auction house Golden Age since 2001 and knew he had found a valuable item. PSA confirmed the photo was in fact a Type 1.
The selling price shattered the previous high for a Woods Type 1 photo, which had been $11,075 for a 1992 photo of Woods playing Pinehurst.
Loop’s boss at Golden Age Auctions, owner Ryan Carey, told Cllct that the auction house would donate $2,000 from the sale of the photo to United Way of Los Angeles, the charity Beck had designated as the beneficiary of the sale of his photos.
But Carey stepped up and confirmed he’d donate an additional 10 percent from the sale of the photo, bringing the total charitable contribution to $30,471. So, Beck got what he originally wanted from the sale and then some.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Tiger Woods photo 2000 PGA Championship sold record price at auction
Category: General Sports
