John Daly's 1995 Open Championship Claret Jug recently sold at an online auction for $66,000. After seven bids from a variety of collectors, an unidentified bidder cashed in on the trophy at what some consider a discount rate.
"Major trophies almost never become available in the collecting market," said director of sports auctions at Heritage, Chris Ivy, in a statement. "This Claret Jug is a figurative Holy Grail for the advanced golf collector."
There is still a bit of controversy over the legitimacy of the trophy as Daly tweeted that he did not sell his Claret Jugs when this piece originally went up for sale a few years ago. However, Heritage Auctions was clear about the trophy's origins in their original description. They note that there are actually two trophies (which Daly himself seemed to admit as well).
This is one of two produced for Daly by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club's official silversmith Nicolas Winton. We stress to interested parties that there is no ownership controversy today, and that this is indeed the one and only Daly Claret Jug available to the collecting public.
Daly doubled down on Twitter during the auction, but the bidding was not canceled, and the auction was not taken down as it was in 2016 when he complained about it.
Regardless, it's a fun buy. Who knows what's been consumed out of that jug, but what a conversation starter. Off the top of my head, the only pieces of recent golf memorabilia that would be more interesting are maybe Tiger Woods' green jacket from 1997 or his Claret Jug from 2000 when he also won The Open at St. Andrews.