An Arkansas man has filed a lawsuit against a country club and car dealership because they allegedly refused to hand over the prize from a hole-in-one contest.
The Morrilton Country Club promised that the first golfer who successfully landed a hole-in-one on the tenth hole would get a 2022 F-150 truck from the Jay Hodge Ford dealership, Fox News reported. The car’s value is reportedly $53,595.
Austin Clagett scored the hole-in-one on the tenth hole, even though he reportedly has never sunk a hole-in-one in his life, but the Jay Hodge Ford dealership told him he was “out of luck.”
“When it was Austin Clagett’s turn to try to get a hole-in-one, Austin Clagett hit the ball and it went in the hole on the first attempt,” a news release said, per KATV. “Afterwards, Morrilton Country Club and Jay Hodge Ford of Morrilton refused to give Austin Clagett the keys or transfer him the title to the 2022 Ford F-150 4×4 Supercrew.”
Clagett told Fox News that there wasn’t a sign about the prize, but “[t]he truck was parked next to the hole, and there was a woman sitting on the tee box with a pair of binoculars that said, ‘This is the hole, if you do it you win it.’”
“It was a surreal feeling,” he said, recounting when he got the hole-in-one. When people told him he had made it, he didn’t believe them.
The dealership claimed that the country club used their truck as the award without telling them and that they didn’t have time to acquire insurance.
“Without our knowledge, Morrilton Country Club promoted that this new truck would be available as a winning prize at the event despite our agreement that it would be for display purposes only,” the dealership said. “Jay Hodge Ford of Morrilton would like to extend its sincerest apologies to the community for this misunderstanding and we look forward to serving everyone in the future.”
Andrew Norwood, Clagett’s lawyer, explained the situation to Fox News.
“They made an offer that said anybody that pays your entry fee and comes here and hits this hole-in-one will win the offer,” Norwood said. “Austen accepted that offer when he paid his $375 … He showed up per their request and on their hole that they put out there, they designated he hit a hole in one.”
“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,” Norwood previously said in response to the incident. “If they didn’t want to pay up when Mr. Clagett got a hole-in-one, they shouldn’t have offered the deal.”