THE valuable masters’ jacket lost from Woodhall Park Golf Club in Brinkworth this week has been found dumped in a nearby garden.

The green jacket had been won by Colin Driscoll after the club held their own masters tournament last weekend.

After travelling to a framers in Shrivenham, club member Graham Hill was horrified when he realised he had left the ceremonial jacket on the boot of his car and driven off.

After returning to the scene, there was no trace of the jacket and staff at the store had not seen it.

Fortunately for Graham, a nearby resident had found the jacket hurled over her garden wall, and contacted the club as soon as she saw the appeal in the Adver on Thursday.

“I had a phone call from the club as soon as they found it,” said Graham. “What has apparently happened was this woman came home from work and picked up the Adver as she usually does. “She was flicking through and recognised the jacket as the one that had been dumped over her garden wall. It was filthy and covered in dirt.

“She said she had found it in the garden the day before. I think someone must have picked it up and gone through the pockets, and when they hadn’t found anything, they chucked it over the garden wall. Her house is quite close to the shop where it got lost, so it all fits in.”

Graham felt a weight lifted after the jacket was found as he had given it up for good and began searching for a replacement.

“When the club phoned me up I screamed with delight because I was so worried about it,” he said.

“The place would not have been the same without having the same jacket. A lady called Veronica from the club took the call and rang me straight away because she knew I had been in pieces about it.

“It had been a case of trying to get a new one in case it didn’t turn up. We had been looking online and we saw a couple similar in America and Australia. We would have had to get them sent over and embroidered specially.

“A guy called Gary Powell, one of the members at the club, went out to America and got the original made specially, and I think it would be difficult to find a similar one in this country. “It has to be a particular type of blazer that doesn’t get made here.”

Graham will be keeping a watchful eye on the prize jacket in the future and it will now remain locked at the club.

“After we pick it up we are taking it straight to be dry cleaned, and a friend of mine has volunteered to get that done for us,” he said. “On Monday it will be going back to the club to its rightful place, and it will never be leaving the club again.”