Housing
A Golf Institution Sets Its Sights On the Neighbors
Augusta National has gobbled up about 100 acres outside its storied gates. What’s the plan? A spokesperson for the famously secretive club will only say that off-campus property “supports tournament operations.”
Herman and Elizabeth Thacker won’t budge. Longtime residents of Augusta, Georgia, the elderly couple keep saying “no” to the most powerful entity in town: Augusta National Golf Club, the iconic venue of golf’s most prestigious event, the Masters.
“Money ain’t everything,” Herman has often said when asked why he refuses to sell his modest, memory-filled house to Augusta National despite staggeringly generous offers. In a neighborhood that’s been bought and bulldozed by the club to create free Masters parking, Thacker is a hold-out. The first week of every April he now looks out at a field packed with upwards of 8,500 vehicles.