Monday, April 9, 2012

Fan returns Oosthuizen's valuable ball from Masters

The ball used by Louis Oosthuizen during an unbelievable shot on the second hole of the Masters ended up in the hands of a fan sitting in the gallery and was returned later to members of Augusta National.

The valuable Titlelist 4 ball— with Oosthuizen's  signature single dot as identification— ended up in the hands of Wayne Mitchell a new Zealander living in Allentown, Pa. after Oosthuizen's historic double eagle on the second hole.  The jubilant golfer had tossed the dimpled ball into the crowd after retrieving the while gold.


The South African had just hit the ball 253 yards into the cup for just the fourth albatross, or double eagle, in Masters history and the first on the second hole.  The tournament has been held since 1934.

The amazing shot— which gave Oosthuizen a lead in the tournament that he would hold all day until a playoff against Bubba Watson.  For a while it looked like the shot would give Oosthuizen a green jacket.

After the ball rolled the final  28 yards into the cup, Oosthuizen raised his arms and high-fived his caddy.  When he reached the green, he scooped up the ball and tossed it into the crowd where Mitchell grabbed it.

"My biggest fear was that I would drop it," said Mitchell.  "I'm not a souvenir chaser.  But there were about 100 people behind me who would have gone for it."

One memorabilia company offered $20,000 for the ball on Twitter, according to Yahoo Sports.

No word on how much it would have been worth if Oosthuizen had held on to beat Watson.

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