Elderly couple turn down million-dollar offer to buy their home
<p dir="ltr">An elderly couple has had a seemingly endless amount of money thrown at them by The Augusta National Club, which hosts the annual Masters Tournament, but they have continued to refuse to sell their long-held home.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Herman and Elizabeth Thacker first built their home in Augusta, Georgia, in 1959, and have watched as the homes in their neighbourhood have been bought out and turned into a free car park across from the golf club over the last 10 years, according to the <em><a href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/12/owner-of-holdout-house-on-masters-golf-course-shun-1m-offer-to-leave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Post</a>.</em></p>
<p dir="ltr">In a 2016 interview with <a href="https://www.nj.com/golf/2016/04/masters_2016_the_house_that_au.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NJ.com</a>, the Thackers said their modest home was where they hoped to live out their final days.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“We really don’t want to go”, Elizabeth said.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“Money ain’t everything,” Herman added.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Whenever a representative from the golf club came by to make an offer, including up to $1 million offers, the pair always invited him inside.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">“He’ll come by here every so often and he’ll say, ‘Just want to let you know we’re still interested in your property’,” Herman said. “And we’ll tell him the same thing again.”</p>
<p dir="ltr"><img src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/2022/04/google-maps-georgia.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" /></p>
<p dir="ltr"><em>Herman and Elizabeth Thacker have lived in the home since they built it in 1953. Image: Google Maps</em></p>
<p dir="ltr">For Herman, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home he’d lived in for more than 65 years was where he took his final breaths. The golf fan passed away in 2019 at age 86.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Elizabeth, his wife of 64 years, is still living in their home.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Over the years, the couple raised their two children in the home, and their family has since grown to include five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren who all manage to squeeze in when they visit for the holidays.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Over the last 20 years, the golf club has spent more than $200 million purchasing over 100 properties that span a whopping 270 acres, according to the <em><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/augusta-nationals-makes-a-200-million-land-grab-11554897600" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Wall Street Journal</a></em>, including a smaller property the Thackers owned across the street.</p>
<p dir="ltr">They eventually sold their second home to the glub for a hefty $1.2 million.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“They called us over there for the first time and made us an offer,” Herman said in the 2016 interview.</p>
<p dir="ltr">“I asked him: ‘Is that your bottom line?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, we’ll see you then’, and we got up and walked out. It wasn’t long before he was calling back over here, wanting to know if he could talk to us again.”</p>
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<p dir="ltr"><em>Image: NJ.com</em></p>
