The USA most exclusive golf club spent a fortune to buy the neighborhood. They did not have the resistance of an old woman

In Augusta, Georgia, where the average value of a house is around $ 125,000, the offers of the most famous golf club in the United States, the Augusta National Golf Clubto residents and owners of the adjoining lands have been much more than generous. The prestigious club that houses the Masters tournament has allocated at least 200 million dollars to the purchase of more than 100 properties, from modest houses to neighborhood shops, with uprights that even quintupled or more the fiscal value of the property.

Only A house is brought to the ambitious renewal project.

Money and aesthetics. The last week told the Wall Street Journal exclusively. In the last 20 years, the most legendary golf club on the planet has executed one of the most ambitious (and discrete) land acquisition campaigns in the recent history of American sport. The goal was not just to gain physical space. It was also transforming everything that surrounds the club into an extension of its controlled, elegant and exclusive aesthetic.

The image of the visitor who is going through a neighborhood of houses for rent, street vendors and cigarette stalls on the way to the perfect grass fields did not fit with the narrative of the “Golf Sanctuary”. Therefore, the club began to Buy the houses and to demolish themturning whole neighborhoods into parking lots and green areas, redrawing even road limits and suffocating any trace of the popular bustle that once surrounded the masters.

White cheches. To do this and as we said at the beginning, they have not spared when taking the neighborhood. He WSJ counted Cases such as the Lakemont Presbyterian Church, sold for 1.65 million dollars, or that of Madeleine Liles, who received 1.1 million dollars for the house that his father built in 1953.

These cases exemplify a clear pattern: Augusta National does not discuss. Pay. Fast, in cash, and without hesitation. The strategy has generated a Unexpected wealth For many residents, he has strengthened local tax coffers and has silenced much of community resistance. The newspaper explained that the phrase “You know they have the money” has become a mandatory between sellers and local real estate agents.

And yet A house He has resisted the “charm” of green.

A “ordinary” house vs. Empire. Yes, apparently, just a few steps from the legendary club, a 92 -year -old woman, Elizabeth Thackerresists firmly multimillionaires offers that surround her. In a modest house with three bedrooms and a single floor, built in 1956 on a land of 27 hectares, Thacker has lived most of his life, along with his late Husband Herman and his family.

The house, located in the Stanley Road 1112in Augusta, Georgia, he has witnessed generations: his children grew up there and also played his grandson as a child, the professional golfer Scott Brown. However, for years, property is also the object of desire for the powerful golf club, which has invested those More than 200 million dollars in expanding its urban domain and converting the surroundings in part of its private infrastructure.

The roots value above all. Although the estimated value of the house is of 338,026 dollars (Well above the local average of $ 215,000), Augusta National has presented multiple offers above that figure, all rejected. And not because business has not been done before: the Thacker sold another property to the same institution for 1.2 million dollars.

The difference in this case is because the house where Elizabeth still lives is different. It is home to his life, the site where he formed a family and where he still finds meaning and belonging. His late husband made clear in 2017: “Money is not everything.” And that phrase, simple and powerful, seems to summarize the spirit with which the woman has faced one of the most influential sports clubs on the planet.

Resistance between demolitions. WSJ counted That Augusta National strategy these two decades has been silent but forceful: buying properties at prices far superior to those of the market, sometimes through limited liability companies with opaque names such as BC Acquisition Co. or WSQ.

Many of those acquired homes have already been demolished, replaced by parking areas or empty spaces, ready for future constructions. In fact, right in front of Thacker’s house there is now unfaled land that functions as a parking lot for tournament attendees. Under this context, his looks like an island in the midst of the advance of a tide that buys and transforms everything.

The “other” Elizabeth. Next to the old woman, there is another person who has also resisted the offers of the club, although from another perspective. Rebecca Freeman81, he lives nothing from the club par-3 of the club. The woman has also seen how a dozen houses in her street were sold and demolished, and although Augusta National has made her an offer, she was lower than the 500,000 dollars obtained A neighbor, and she, patient and calculator, has decided to wait.

No doubt, he plays with an ace in the sleeve: he knows that the club will end up wanting his property and a few others who still stand. “When they are ready to stay with the remaining, the price will rise,” He said to the WSJ. Its logic, like that of others who have resisted, is simple: when a buyer has infinite pockets and an immovable plan, the key is to wait for the right moment.

Tenacity as a legacy. In it Thacker case And although many neighbors have already sold, she not only remains, but is still the soul of her house. Your daughter, Robin Thacker Rinder, confirmed the media With pride: “Yes, it’s ours. And yes, mom still lives there. He has an iron will.”

That stubbornness, in simple appearance, encloses an act of dignity that challenges the logic of the great transactions. In times where everything seems to have a price, the story of Thacker has become these days a rare reminder that there are decisions that They are not measured in figuresbut in history, love and certain belonging. While mastra -attendees go in front of their door without knowing it, the woman who He refused to sell Still there, firm in your conviction: money is not everything.

Or, at least, it is not for now.

Image | GolfRichmond County Property, Pocketwiley

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