Tiger Woods' 'Tiger Slam' golf clubs sell for more than $5M at auction

April 10 (UPI) -- The golf clubs that Tiger Woods used to win four consecutive major championships from 2000-01 sold at auction for a record-breaking price over the weekend.

The Titleist 681-T iron set that helped Woods win what is known as the "Tiger Slam" was auctioned away for about $5.16 million at Golden Age Auctions on Saturday. The sale shattered the previously reported record for golf memorabilia held by Horton Smith's green jacket, which sold for $682,000 in 2013.

The set of clubs includes irons and wedges -- nine Titleist 681-T irons, 2-iron through pitching wedge, in addition to two Vokey wedges. Both of the wedges have "Tiger" stamped on them.

Todd Brock, a private equity investor from Houston, was the owner of the irons and put them up for auction. He said the money from the auction will go toward his foundation.

Brock purchased the irons for $57,242 in 2010, when former Titleist vice president of player promotions Steve Mata sold them at auction.

"I've had them for 12 years now, and I haven't told anybody that I owned them," Brock told ESPN. "They were in a really nice frame in my office and I'm not an investor in memorabilia, so nobody was seeing the irons.

"I've had the opportunity to see these for 12 years and it's like a Rembrandt, where somebody takes it to their castle and it's never seen again. I felt blessed that I got to hang out with them and look at them, but it's time for somebody else to do something bigger and better with them."

Woods won the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in 2000 to become just the second golfer since Ben Hogan to win three majors in one calendar year. Woods then made the turn in 2001 and won the Masters, becoming the first player to hold all four major golf titles at the same time.

At the time the clubs were sold in 2010, Mata submitted to a polygraph test to prove the irons were authentic. He passed that test, and Brock did additional research himself -- including photo comparisons -- to verify the authenticity of the clubs.

"We can say with 100% confidence that these clubs were used by Tiger Woods during his legendary 2000-01 seasons," Ryan Carey, the owner of Golden Age Auctions, told PGATour.com last month.

Woods memorabilia, along with most other sports memorabilia, has continued to climb in value in recent years. Last year, Golden Age sold one of Woods' backup Scotty Cameron putters for $393,000.