Rory's Open Winning Ball

On Sunday, July 20 on the 18th green of Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Rory McIlroy tapped in his putt to win the 2014 Open Championship. As millions watched on television across the globe, Rory retrieved his ball from the cup and proceeded to throw it into the jubilant gallery.

    Offered here is that ball. The actual ball that Rory McIlroy holed out with to become, as they say in Britain, "Champion Golfer of the World."

    Like those watching on television last week, we too watched in astonishment as Rory chucked that Hall of Fame-worthy ball into the crowd. But we went a step further. We immediately took to Twitter to tell our loyal followers, as well as several prominent sportswriters, that we had a mission for them: Find. That. Ball.

    And they did! We quickly learned about the gentleman who caught the ball, Lee Horner of Leeds, England, and began negotiations to obtain it for our auction.

    Without further ado, here is Rory McIlroy's custom Nike RZN Black "RORS" golf ball which he used on the 72nd hole at Hoylake. Accompanying this ball is a screen shot of television footage of our consignor just after he caught the ball, a widely circulated photo of our consignor showing off the ball outside the Open Championship pavilion (we also have another version of this photo that no one has seen, which we are intentionally not publishing here), another photo of our consignor and his buddies earlier in the day at the 2014 Open Championship, and a letter of provenance from our consignor attesting to the ball's authenticity and the story of how he caught the ball. We have also included some incredible images of Rory McIlroy with this ball during the Open.

    How many chances will a collector have in their entire life to obtain the actual ball used to win a Major Championship? This is a ball that will only gain in significance for the next 20, 50, even 100 years. In the collecting world, this is what's called a "dream piece" - something that no one could ever expect would become available for sale; yet here it is....

**NIKE CONFIRMS!! ESPN's Darren Rovell reached out to Nike Golf Spokesperson Beth Gast, who has confirmed the ball's authenticity!