First Masters winner Horton Smith's green jacket to be auctioned off

(CBS News) In golf, the champion of The Masters earns the coveted green jacket. Now, you can own one.

And not just any jacket, but the one given to the first winner of The Masters.

Many collectors of golf memorabilia had no idea where it was, until now.

To win The Masters, as Australia's Adam Scott did this spring, is to reach the pinnacle of professional golf. And the prize -- the green jacket -- is the most sought-after in the sport.

The first green jacket was awarded to Sam Snead in 1949, but he wasn't the prestigious tournament's first champion. That title belongs to Horton Smith who won in 1934 and again in 1936 -- 15 years before the green jacket became synonymous with Augusta. According to GreenJacketAuctions.com, which is selling the garment, "Augusta National first awarded the green jacket to Masters Champions in 1949, beginning with Sam Snead, and at the same time retroactively awarded jackets to the nine former Masters Champs that had won the Masters from 1934-1948, including Horton Smith. Those jackets are affectionately referred to as the 'Original 10'." The offered jacket is that exact green jacket that was awarded to Horton Smith in 1949 -- the only one of the 'Original 10' green jackets to ever be offered for public sale."

Michael Lackovic is the last of Smith's relatives to care for the jacket. Last month he decided to sell it. He told CBS News, "We just feel strongly it should be displayed somewhere very prominent. And I'd like to see the PGA historical museum acquire it. That would be nice."

Bob Zafian, co-owner of Green Jacket Auctions, initially questioned the jacket's authenticity. "I was very hesitant to believe it," he said. "But as he was talking to me and telling me that he was actually a relative of Horton Smith's, I'm like, OK this possibly...this might be real."

Smith's jacket joins nearly 400 pieces of golf history currently up for bid on GreenJacketAuctions.com.

Zafian called it the "holy grail," adding, "I would be really surprised if it didn't sell for over $150,000. The sky's the limit on something like this. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Lackovic said, "It's been taken well care of, protected and cherished ... believe me. Hopefully it goes somewhere very nice. That's our goal."

The current bid is up to $117,000. The final bid is expected late Saturday night.

One of the last green jackets to be auctioned -- and believed to belong to Bobby Jones, co-founder of The Masters, sold in 2011 for more than $300,000.

Watch Terrell Brown's full report above.