lege-age kids to whom he would distribute cash along with shopping lists. This enabled him to photograph and list products on his website week-of and continue to sell all year – at considerable markups, of course. This was and is perfectly legal, though frustrating to Augusta National. MMO Industries is a registered busi- ness in Tampa, Florida, and a bank there, convinced of the soundness of Matheny’s business plan, would provide him workable terms on short-term cash loans. As the Masters transitioned to digital payments, so did MMO, which contin- ued to evade detection. Who would be a suspicious shopper anyway? Anyone who’s been to the Masters has witnessed the throngs walking with laden bags having clearly spent high-three or four figures on clothes and trinkets. Many utilise the expediently managed shipping services centre between the range and the first fairway. After the 2009 Masters, Globensky, emboldened, began taking more than was “customary.” A leftover box of Bobby Jones brand shirts with a loud pattern caught his eye, and he posted a couple on eBay. An intrigued buyer messaged ask- ing if they were authentic, and an in-person meeting ensued. Globensky’s attorney would not confirm or deny that this buyer was Kenley Matheny, though Golf Digest has it from reliable sources. Matheny has not been charged and did not respond to Golf Digest’s request for an interview. “He’s smart,” Globensky said of Individual 1, as he, Matheny, is referenced in multiple case documents. In addition to business, Globensky says they quickly bonded over talking football and gambling. “He goes to The Open and buys stuff for all the fans who don’t make it over. He picked through the PGA of America headquarters (in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida) before they moved to Frisco (Texas). He’s big with college merchandise.” In time, Globensky says, he developed a feel for which items never sold out as well as “shrink rates,” or the down- ward variances in audit figures tolerated by his supervi- sors. From the warehouse, he sent photographs of items to Matheny, who responded with specific requests. Globensky would then transfer those items to storage facilities he leased in town before the Masters. Matheny would drive north from Tampa, usually in a 27-foot box truck, and together they’d load. At other times, they simply used commercial carriers such as UPS. While the volume of this scheme escalated, Globensky took night classes at Augusta State University and graduated with a degree in business administration. Globensky claims that during renovations to the club’s vaults, items that were normally stored securely were tem- porarily placed openly in the warehouse – a restricted area, nevertheless. When he first came across Ben Hogan’s jacket in 2011, he thought it was a replica because the original ivory- coloured buttons didn’t look quite right. (The club switched to brass buttons in 1974.) When he found a white cardboard hanging box with “AP” written on the outside, Globensky’s first thought was “Associated Press” until he opened it and discovered Arnold Palmer’s jacket, identified by the hand- written nametag on the inside with a drycleaning tag still affixed. He walked outside with the jacket, put it in the van and drove across town to his storage container. On the way, he says, the notion occurred that he was a hero of sorts for possibly saving it from accidentally going to the incinerator. The Golf Auction, which bills itself as “USA’s Top Golf Auction Site,” is registered to the same Tampa address as
(GLOBENSKY) SAYS, THE NOTION OCCURRED HE WAS A HERO OF SORTS FOR POSSIBLY SAVING IT FROM ACCIDENTALLY GOING TO THE INCINERATOR.
he accepted the rumour circulating among cohorts that at some point some lockers had been cleared out and an em- ployee or somebody in the process “had rescued them from death row.” Kip Ingle, representing The Golf Auction, told the Chicago collector without hesitation the source was a local man named Globensky. One or two years later, Ingle approached again, this time with Palmer’s jacket. The collec- tor called expert Bob Zafian, who had a notebook of Augusta National’s memorabilia inventory from 2005. Out of four serial numbers pertaining to Palmer jackets, none matched the number of the jacket Ingle was offering, so, feeling confident it wasn’t stolen from Augusta National, the Chicago collector purchased the Palmer jacket for low six- figures. (Ingle has not been charged and did not respond to our request for an interview). Because of the stance Augusta National had taken towards ownership of all jackets, Ryan Carey, the owner of Golden Age Auctions (a separate auction house never involved with Globensky’s stolen items), which executed the Horton Smith sale, sympathises with the judgment call made by the Chi- cago collector. However, as a business owner, Carey was flab- bergasted at the decision of The Golf Auction, his competitor, to sell such a marquee item behind closed doors and at such an inexpensive price. “As an auction house, not only do you want a public sale to raise the price, you want all the public- ity you can get to grow your reputation.” Carey is no rookie to legal tussles with Augusta National, which in 2017 sued him over the original name of his company, Green Jacket Auctions, as well as his right to sell certain club artifacts. During a deposition of his former partner, Palmer’s green jack- et was never mentioned as a missing item. Ultimately, Carey, a passionate golfer and golf fan, acquiesced to the name change but was vindicated against all claims and received compensation for the lawsuit. (Disclosure: Golf Digest has a business relationship with Golden Age Auctions.) We don’t know exactly when Augusta National realised certain jackets and historic items were missing. The consen- sus among the collectibles crowd is that during the 2010s, the club was more preoccupied with figuring out how MMO had photographs of new merchandise items live on its website the
MMO Industries with Kenley Matheny also listed as an owner. Basically, MMO Golf is for merchandise and The Golf Auction is for memorabilia. You’d buy a plain Masters flag at the former but a signed one at the latter. The Golf Auction paid Globensky just $5 000 for the Hogan jacket he wasn’t sure was genuine, and just $50 000 for the Palmer jacket whose authenticity seemed certain. In 2010, Augusta National declared they owned all green jackets. That members and Masters champions had “possessory rights” to have and use a jacket but that ownership ultimately resided with the club. This would ad- dress civil suits with collectors who viewed otherwise. “They changed the rules,” says our same Chicago collec- tor, whose first green jacket acquisition was famed auto-engineer and Augusta National member John DeLorean’s, which he bought for $8 000 at an estate sale. “The fact of the matter is, if you go back to the old champions, many of whom are still alive, they’ll all tell you the same thing: that (Augusta National) never said one word that I didn’t own the jacket or that they owned the jack- et. For certain I never signed anything acknowledging that. After Bob Goalby died, one of his sons received a call from Augusta National, and the mes-
sage, ‘We hope you enjoy your father’s jackets.’ Hint: Don’t try to sell them.” (Goalby won the Masters once, in 1968, the year of Roberto De Vicenzo’s cruel scorecard gaffe, and so the plural “jackets” refers to how multiple jackets might be assigned to an individual as girths change with age, or spills from cocktail hour and dinner are suffered.) Fearing any jacket that surfaced would be asserted as stolen by Au- gusta National, the Chicago collec- tor made best guesses verifying items quietly. When he decided to buy the Hogan jacket for around $100 000 in a private sale from The Golf Auction,
TRAIL-BLAZERS (from left) Horton Smith, Byron Nelson, Gene Sarazen, Henry Picard, and Ralph Guldahl, the first five Masters winners, in 1939. Smith’s jacket was sold at auction and Sarazen’s, presumably, privately.
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