By Susan Lulgjuraj | Beckett Sports Card Monthly Editor

Collectors have had to wait about eight years for a new golf set from Upper Deck.

In that time, we’ve seen some great tournament runs and golfers endure rises and falls. This week marked the return of SP Authentic Golf from UD highlighting some of the most popular male and female golfers.

Golfers in the set include Tiger Woods, Mike Weir, Brittany Lincicome, Cristie Kerr and See Ri Pak.

But the most popular cards in SP Authentic might not even come from professional golfers. Upper Deck has included a Parade of Stars subset featuring celebrities who enjoy hitting off the tee.

Michael Jordan is one of the biggest names of this subset, which comes in autographed and non-autographed form. The autograph versions of this card is listed online for about $3,000 right now.
- 2012 SP Authentic Michael Jordan autos

Other non-pro golfers in the Parade of Stars subset include
- Hockey legend Bobby Orr
- Baseball Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt
- Soccer star Landon Donovan
- New York Giants legend Lawrence Taylor

The golf product doesn’t just feature all the best male athletes.

The women get good play in SP Authentic as well. LPGA stars Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer are some of the big signers. They are popular on the tour with many fans and girls who look up to them.

Even with their popularity among golf fans, their autographs are still reasonably priced.

Susan Lulgjuraj is the editor of Beckett Sports Card Monthly. You can email her here with questions, comments or ideas. Follow her on Twitter here.

By Susan Lulgjuraj | Contributing Editor

After a lengthy absence from the golf scene, Upper Deck is coming back with a new set this year.

SP Authentic is scheduled for a June release with cards from the top male and female golfers of the world.

Collectors could expect to find autographs and material cards as well as a plethora of Rookie Cards as well as one of the coolest dual autograph cards in a while.

This is the second golf set to be announced this year. Leaf is also coming out with a product in March: Metal Golf.

SP Authentic Golf should have – on average – three autographs with at least one rookie in every 20-pack box with four cards in each pack.

Some of the golf collectors could expect to find are Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ernie Els, Arnold Palmer, Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer, Natalie Gulbis and others.

If you look at the pictures, there is one card that has been jumping out to fans: the dual autograph of Michael Jordan and Woods, two of the best athletes of this generation.

Upper Deck hasn’t had a dedicated golf set since 2005 and it seems it is going all out for this product. Along with the autographs and swatches there are variations to many of the hits and inserts. In addition, red-foil parallels will be hard to find dropping at an average of four in every five cases.

Susan Lulgjuraj is a contributing editor for Beckett Media. You can email Susan here. Follow her on Twitter here.