Former Augusta National Golf Club worker charged in Chicago with stealing millions in Masters memorabilia
An ex-employee of Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia has been charged in federal court in Chicago with stealing millions of dollars in Masters Tournament memorabilia over a 13-year period and taking it to Florida.
Robert Globensky, 39, of Augusta, Georgia, was charged with in a one-page criminal information filed Tuesday with transporting stolen goods across state lines. An arraignment was not immediately scheduled.
Defendants charged by way of information instead of a grand jury indictment typically plan to plead guilty. Globensky’s Atlanta-based attorney, Thomas Church, could not immediately be reached.
The charges allege that between 2009 and 2022, Globensky moved “millions of dollars’ worth of Masters golf tournament merchandise and historical memorabilia” taken from Augusta National “and transported to Tampa, Florida, knowing the same had been stolen, converted and taken by fraud.”
No further details were provided about Globensky’s role at the club, what became of the allegedly stolen merchandise. or whether any of the club’s vaunted green jackets were part of the theft. The Chicago connection also was not immediately disclosed.
The charges were filed just days after Augusta hosted the 88th annual Masters Tournament over the weekend, ending with Scottie Scheffler winning his second green jacket.
A private, for-profit club, Augusta National was founded by Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts in 1932 and has hosted the Masters since 1934. The club is notoriously strict with its rules and is known to ban scofflaws for infractions like running on the course or using a cell phone.
Augusta is also very protective of official memorabilia, particularly the prized green jacket, which it began awarding to Masters champions in 1949.
In 2013, the club sued a Texas auction house that was attempting to sell a green jacket allegedly stolen from Art Wall after he won the 1959 Masters, according to news reports. The complaint stated that an internal investigation had shown three employees were responsible for the theft of Wall’s jacket as well as other items of value from the Augusta grounds.
In similar lawsuit four years later, Augusta National accused a Florida auction house of advertising the sale of the green jacket won by Byron Nelson in 1966, court records show. That jacket had last been inventoried in storage at the club in 2009 but the complaint stated it was unclear how the jacket wound up on the auction block.
According to the suit, the green jacket is “probably the most coveted award in the golfing world” and remains the property of the club. The winner is allowed to removed from the Augusta National grounds only within a year of winning it, according to the lawsuit. Afterwards, the jacket must be stored on the club’s premises and can only be used during the Masters tournament.
“Gary Player famously tells the story of having mistakenly taken his Green Jacket home to South Africa after the 1961 Masters, and inadvertently failing to return the Green Jacket in 1962,” the lawsuit stated. “After discussions with (Augusta National) that year, he was given permission to store the Green Jacket in South Africa subject to the caveat that he never wears the Green Jacket in public.”
Both lawsuits were eventually settled, court records show.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com