Buckle up, everyone. We have a hole-in-one car controversy brewing in the US. This week, a man from Arkansas by the name of Austin Clagett filed a lawsuit against Morrilton Country Club.
Clagett played in the club’s “Tournament of the Century” on Saturday, a three-person scramble format with a buy-in of $US375. Before the tournament, Morrilton Country Club appeared to promote a 2022 Ford F-150 4×4 Supercrew as a prize for the first person to hit a hole-in-one of the course’s 10th hole. That ute had a sticker of prize of $US53,595 ($A86,000) and was allegedly donated by nearby Ford dealership Jay Hodge Ford of Morriltown. So far, so good.
But here’s where the problems start. Clagett went out and aced the 10th hole. According to reports, it was a good, clean ace. It didn’t happen on a provisional. It didn’t happen out of turn. A letter-of-the-law ace. When Clagett went to claim his new ute after round, however, Morrilton Country Club wouldn’t turn over the keys.
Clagett’s lawyer Andrew Norwood issued the following statement on behalf of his client:
“This is about doing what is right. Mr. Clagett lived up to his end of the deal when he got the hole-in-one and now Morrilton Country Club and Jay Hodge Ford of Morrilton want to crawfish out of the deal. If they didn’t want to pay up when Mr. Clagett got a hole-in-one, they shouldn’t have offered the deal.”
Jay Hodge Ford says they were unable to secure the necessary insurance for the vehicle in time because they believed the vehicle was for display purposes only. Without their knowledge, Morrilton Country Club promoted the pickup as a hole-in-one prize, perhaps thinking no one would actually make a hole-in-one, a decision which has now backfired spectacularly.
Where this goes from here is anybody’s guess, but it sure sounds like somebody, somewhere is going to owe Clagett a new ute.
