$1M Ace?

swinnea

This is NOT meant to start a political debate (occurred at a course owned by a Presidential candidate), but it seems like an interesting story to me. Was there subterfuge involved? The basics are that someone had a hole-in-one during a charity tournament and $1M was offered for an ace. But the fine print said that there had to be a 150 yard shot and the tees were apparently set inside that mark. Would the organizers do that on purpose?

Here's one version of the story: Not $1M Ace

blader

swinnea

There'd be no reason to do that on purpose....unless they didn't actually buy hio insurance.

I ran a charity event for several years. I'd buy the sweepstakes from a vendor, who in turn would purchase the insurance. She'd pocket the difference between what she got from me and what it cost her to insure my event.

My job was to get a witness to sit there all day, and to let the proshop know that they needed to set the distances beyond the insured limit. Not real complicated.

Release

Intentionally or not. the parties offered the price and set up the tee box should be responsible for payoff.
As always, the insurance company will try to avoid payoff if they found discrepancy of facts from the insured conditions.
The golfer should go after the promoter and the golf course owner for the HIO price.

We had a guy underwriting Hole In One all over the region and never paid off ( at least 2 instances , not a million but something like $10 K in one case and a new car in another ). This same underwriter was exposed practicing the same scam all over the country. Our State is trying to get him extradited back here for trial.

swinnea

In this case the "winner" sued the promoter/owner and ended up settling for $158,000 I believe. But that's where the story gets political.

Release

swinnea

$158K settlement for a $1M price ? on top of that the attorney fees probably would be minimum of 50% of the settlement.

Spartan

It would be hard to discuss this topic without getting political.

Sneakylong

The negotiated $158,000 went to a charity of his choice. Not a surprise since Trump has a history of stiffing people. A golf course nearby has a plaque in the ground on the 10th hole (~ 180 yards) with the guys name on it that won $1 million in 2002.

mikeintopeka

What is the listed yardage for this hole on the scorecard?

Every insurance policy that has been placed on charity events I've assisted in organizing includes a minimum yardage for the HIO hole. The ones insuring our big tournament (144+ participants) now requires 2 non-playing witnesses too. It just adds to the headache of now coming up with 2 volunteers to sit in the hot sun 5 hours watching a bunch of chops.

Anyway, if I failed to inform the greens superintendent that the tee markers needed to be "x" amount of yards to meet the insurance contractual terms and there was a claim, I'd expect to be sued too for negligence. And quite frankly, I'd sue too if it was me that jarred the shot.

BTW, we always get an entity to 'sponsor' the hole in one prizes so we aren't self insured.

swinnea

mikeintopeka Every insurance policy that has been placed on charity events I've assisted in organizing includes a minimum yardage for the HIO hole. The ones insuring our big tournament (144+ participants) now requires 2 non-playing witnesses too. It just adds to the headache of now coming up with 2 volunteers to sit in the hot sun 5 hours watching a bunch of chops.

Wow. I just never thought of yardage minimums. The extra witness requirement is interesting too. Next there will be video evidence required!

Release

For some reason, I had overheard the 170 yards minimum is the magic number.
Somehow it's against the odds to shot an ace at over 170 yards .
Don't know if this is regional or the general practice.

kelco9

I wonder if the insurance company could back out if they learned that Kim Jong il had entered the tournament: http://news.cybergolf.com/golf_news/alltime_golf_scoring_record_goes_with_death_of_kim_jong_il.

Dufferman

I think the winner was already well off, and the $158,000 actually went to his own charity, named after himself. Either way, not paying up is a skeezy move.

PA-PLAYA

I'm gonna wager a guess that contest insurance wasn't purchased.

Seldom does it become a problem... I mean - the odds are highly unlikely. But when the odds suddenly don't make sense - huge problem.

Back in the early 2000's I worked on the professional staff at a local club, and one day we had a huge outing. There was like 250 participants. The outing coordinator was out hobnobbing with some of the VIPs who were participating in the event, and the unofficial rumor was that alcohol might've been involved... which, mind you, was a serious breach of employment policy, but nevertheless it wasn't investigated by the owner because he wasn't made aware, and if he wasn't made aware - how would he have known!

Anyway... the outing concluded, with exception of the putting contest that was scheduled immediately after the golf and just prior to the awards banquet. So we've got roughly 200 people standing around the practice green, most of which were intoxicated, observing the putting contest. It was an insanely difficult putt, with no fewer than three different contours that had to be figured from about 60 feet away. Of course, not a single one of the participants makes it. Party over, time to eat.

Er, not so fast. Or so said the outing director, who like I said was obviously caught up in one of those "I'm drunk, but I'm also cool, and I'm also a nice guy" moments. He instructed the outing coordinator to pick his best putter from the field of players, and then told him, "Here's what I'm willing to do - if he makes this putt - everyone who participated gets a free round of golf." The crowd erupts, suddenly the club's outing coordinator is the life of the party, "Oh, we're definitely coming back next year -how cool is this guy! Book it now, this has been great!"

So the outing organizer picks out a guy, and says, "here - he's the guy. Let him have his shot!"

You guessed it. The guy strokes the putt, and meandered over the slopes, perfect speed, making a beeline right for the cup. And it almost looks like it's short... it gets right to the edge, I mean right on the very edge, and just stops. And then everybody moans and swears. And two seconds later, it drops. We're talking pandemonium. People were high-fiving, laughing, celebrating their windfalls of a free round of golf!

Except for the club's outing director. He was pale, he was quiet, he wasn't celebrating anything. His "caught up in the moment, feel-good" decision cost our club roughly 12 grand.

After hearing about what happened the day prior, the owner was obviously livid... but he honored the contest, just out of principle. But the outing director was fired the following morning, two minutes after an utter ass-chewing. I can't repeat what was said, other than to say that guy came downstairs and shook my hand, saying, "Good luck, and just so you know - you're working for a worthless sonofabitch."

I still laugh when I think about the look on his face when that putt dropped on the practice green! LMFAO!