A couple of years ago, Jeff Bauerle noticed an old putter sitting on a bench in his father's garage in Jones Creek subdivision.

Bauerle received the putter from the head pro at Rackham Golf Course in Royal Oak, Mich. He doesn't know how it got there. (Michael Holahan/Staff)

His dad, Bill Bauerle, had the putter for more than 50 years, but Jeff had never seen it.

Jeff Bauerle picked it up by the rubber grip and admired the wood shaft. Then he turned it over and saw a name inscribed on the heel.

It was worn, but it was clearly Horton Smith's name.

"He said, 'My gosh, Dad, that putter has to be worth a fortune,' " Bill Bauerle said.

Smith was the winner of the inaugural Masters Tournament. For a variety of reasons, Bill Bauerle believes the putter is the one Smith used to win that first Masters, which was called the Augusta National Invitational Tournament.

"I'm almost positive that's it," Bill said.

He isn't trying to make money off the putter or place it on eBay. When a reporter learned of the putter, he said he would tell his story because it's interesting, but he didn't want his name used.

"Just say it's a local citizen," he said.

With coaxing from a mutual friend, Bauerle relented and showed off his putter last week at his home. It was retrieved from the laundry room where Bauerle had moved it "to keep it warm," he said.

It's now in the hands of a friend for safekeeping.

Horton Smith's signature is inscribed on the bottom of a putter that Bill Bauerle says Smith used to win the inaugural Masters. (Michael Holahan/Staff)

The putter came into Bauerle's hands in the 1950s, when he was working part time at Rackham Golf Course, a public course in Royal Oak, Mich.

"I'd just got out of the Air Force and had a wife and three kids, so I needed a second job," said Bauerle, who was a teacher by trade.

At Rackham, Bauerle admired a putter that sat on a shelf at the course and was not for sale. When he'd take a break, Bauerle would go to the putting green and putt with it. Lou Powers, the head pro, took note of that.

"One day he said, 'Bill, you like that putter; why don't you keep it?' " Bauerle said.

At the time, Bauerle didn't think much about the fact that Smith's name was on the putter, or even wonder how it got in the pro shop.

Later, he came up with a theory.

Powers was the president of the Michigan PGA and was a close friend of Smith's, who was the head pro of the nearby private Detroit Golf Club. Bauerle believes that the clubs might have exchanged merchandise and that Smith threw the putter in with the deal.

Powers and Smith are dead, and Bauerle never thought about asking Powers how he came to own the putter.

Bauerle did research on the putter used in that first Masters. He found that the putter is not at Detroit Golf Club and none of Smith's sisters has it, either.

It's a Masters tradition that champions donate a club -- one that played a significant role in their victory -- to Augusta National for display. Smith also won the 1936 Masters, making him the first two-time winner of the event.

A putter Smith gave to Augusta National after one of his wins is on display in the dining room. (Michael Snyder/Staff)

The fact that Smith donated a putter to Augusta National would seem to take some credibility away from Bauerle's story.

Many Masters champions don't give up the club they used to win, however, because they don't want to part with it at the time.

Instead, they donate a replica, which is what Smith could have done.

Reach David Westin at (706) 823-3224 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.