MORRILTON, Ark. — An Arkansas man has accused the Morrilton Country Club of cheating him out of an advertised prize for a hole-in-one challenge during a weekend tournament.
Austin Clagett of Conway is pursuing legal action against both the country club and Jay Hodge Ford of Morrilton after they refused to transfer to him the title of a 2022 Ford F-150 4x4 Supercrew, valued at $53,595, KATV reported.
Pre-tournament advertising hyped the truck as a prize for the first participant in Saturday’s “Tournament of a Century” to make a hole-in-one on the course’s 10th hole.
As per Golf Digest: “Against all odds, 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 ‘one.’ When Clagett went to claim his new ride after round, however, Morrilton Country Club wouldn’t turn over the keys.”
According to a news release issued by Clagett’s attorney, Andrew Norwood of Denton & Zachary, Clagett sunk the tricky shot on his first attempt but was denied his reward.
“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 said.
“If they didn’t want to pay up when Mr. Clagett got a hole-in-one, they shouldn’t have offered the deal,” he added.
Jay Hodge Ford said in a prepared statement that the dealership was unable to fulfill the club’s request to provide the truck as a prize because they were not given adequate lead time to provide insurance for the vehicle, KATV reported.
“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 stated, adding, “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.”