2018 November Golf Memorabilia Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 11/18/2018
Claude Harmon Signed Cut with 'Sincerely' & Dated 'June 8, 1951'-Seldom Seen Masters Champ
For one lucky bidder, I'm sure what has been a long quest can come to an end with this lot. The quest for the very elusive autograph of the 1948 Masters Champion, Claude Harmon. In the days when it was hard for a professional golfer to feed his family, Harmon paid the bills as one of the top teaching club pros anywhere. He was also the head pro at two of the more prestigious clubs in the United States, Winged Foot and the ultra exclusive Seminole Golf Club. While heading out of the South from the Winter season of 1948, Harmon (the ever precise iron player) stopped off at Augusta on his way North and won the Masters. The glory of the victory did not change him or tempt him to leave his two lucrative country club positions. The combination of these two contributing factors have led to a very difficult autograph: first Harmon spending little time on the regular PGA Tour and secondly his early passing before Masters champion autographs became in vogue. Harmon signed this autograph in blue ink along with the notation and date June 8, 1951 in his hand"Sincerly, - Claude Harmon June 8, 1951". This date was the Friday before the start of the 1951 U.S. Open which leads to speculation that this signature may have been signed at Oakland Hills as it is well documented that Ben Hogan was already on course practicing for his taming of "The Monster", and his frequent practice round partner before majors was Harmon. Back of this paper features a portion of another unknown golfers autograph. This autograph has been reviewed by James Spence Authentication (JSA), and their FULL certificate of authenticity will come with this lot.
Please note: This auction will end at 5:00pm EST Sunday, November 18th, with EXTENDED BIDDING to follow. All items in the auction will remain open until no items have received a bid within a 15 minute time period (up to 9pm EST, then countdown clock will adjust to 5min time period). There is a buyer's premium of 17.5% for all items. All lots are free to be bid on until extended bidding has ended.
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