That must have been some hangover

One night in the '50s, Dick Burton and another man killed a bottle of whiskey or two, apparently to the dismay of the man's wife, Ethel. In the aftermath of their drunken stupor, Burton attempted to mollify Ethel by giving her the putter with which he was believed to have won the British Open at St. Andrews in 1939.

Upon Ethel's death in 1989, her nephew Garry Bingham inherited the club, which he stashed away in his garage, unaware of the putter's place in history, or its value. Bingham recently was rummaging around in his garage and found the putter, which, according to this story in the Telegraph, has a value of more than $22,000.

"I'm not after making money off it," Bingham told the newspaper. "That's not what it's about. I loved the golfing history and it's something I'm proud to have.

"It's like having a piece of history. It's a real family heirloom."

-- John Strege