Golf Balls and Celebrity Autographs

Signing a golf ball is no easy job, but celebrities are often asked � and when it's for charity how could they refuse?

Tiny golf balls

Tiger Woods is just about bearable, Jack Nicklaus is pushing it a bit but the Puerto Rican golfer, Chi Chi Rodriguez is really taking the biscuit. And yet there are hoards of autograph hunters out there who want the signature of their golfing legends squeezed onto a tiny golf ball.

Celebrity-signed golf balls

Not only is the size of the ball an issue, but the dimples and shape � there is clearly a skill in signing golf balls. One man who knows a thing or two about it is a celebrity in his own right � Richard Karn. Richard Karn is an actor who starred in the American TV show, Home Improvement, as the sidekick to Tim Allen. But Karn is also a keen golfer and has a collection of celebrity-signed golf balls.

�You have to rotate it as you sign it, to keep up with the dimples,� Karn told an Antiques and Collectibles magazine on the difficulties of signing golf balls. �Some of the signatures are a little bit wobbly.�

Charity tournament

The reason the actor has an avid interest in signed golf balls isn't just because he's a golf fan, although he is a keen player. He regularly hosts the Richard Karn Celebrity Golf Tournament to raise money for cancer research, and the celebrity signed golf balls were merely a happy side effect of the charity work. Karn set up the tournament after his mother died of cancer in 1983.

�I have a nice high-profile job and I want to take advantage of it in a positive way,� Karn said about the tournaments.

80 signed golf balls

Karn has about 80 celebrity-signed golf balls mounted in a cabinet in his Los Angeles home with signatures from celebrities and famous golf professionals, including Bob Hope, Samuel L Jackson and Bill Clinton.

Making a mint

If you Google �signed golf balls' you will be inundated with auction sites all selling signed golf balls � revealing the huge demand there is for the memorabilia. An Arnold Palmer signed golf ball in mint condition can reach $500.

Some of the professional golfers in Karn's collection include:

• George Archer
• Arnold Palmer
• Vijay Singh
• Phil Mickelson
• John Daly, and�
• �.unbelievably, Chi Chi Rodriguez!

Although he had asked Tiger Woods he was told he had a tight contract that restricted him for signing golf balls, no doubt making them more collectible and sought after.

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