Tiger's Clubs-On-eBaygate: Whom Do You Believe?

Tiger said today that he owns the clubs he won majors with but Doug Ferguson talks to Steve Mata, who seems confident that he has the Tiger Slam irons and witnesses to prove it.

Mata said Woods took the new set and gave him the irons he had been using.

"He said, 'Keep them, they're yours.' And I said, 'What? Are you kidding me?"' Mata said. "I turned to another Titleist employee and said, 'Does he know what they are?' And Tiger said he knew exactly what they are."

Mata declined to name the other Titleist employee whom he described as his witness. He said several people in the industry know the story of Woods giving him the irons from the four straight majors. He said a few years later, he reminded Woods that he had the irons and Woods told him that he used two sets of Titleist irons in winning the four majors.

Woods said he switches irons every eight or nine months because of the grooves. The U.S. Open and Masters are 10 months apart.

Mata said he asked Woods about donating them to the World Golf Hall of Fame and Woods was opposed to the idea.

No they're much better off in the garage!

Mata said he wasn't surprised that Woods denied those were the irons. He said he spoke to Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, to see if Woods was interested in buying them back. In the last few weeks, he said he was getting signals that Woods wasn't happy with his plans to sell the irons.

There was also this in E. Michael Johnson's story:

Mata said Woods replied, "No, they only won two of them," although Mata maintains they won all four. When asked why Woods would deny that he has the clubs, Mata simply said, "I have no idea. I don't understand. But a lot of people inside the industry have known for a long time that I have these clubs and know what they are."

So who do you believe?