Teed-Off Golfer Finally Gets Hole-in-One Prize

It took 18 months for J.C. Higgins to collect his prize after sinking a hole-in-one during a golf tournament sponsored by the Glendora Chamber of Commerce, but he didn’t keep it for long.

After protracted litigation culminating in a settlement reached on the courthouse steps as trial was about to begin, Higgins, 42, was awarded a new 1987 Camaro Z-28.

He drove it around the block, then sold it back to the dealer for $14,500.

“The car drove great,” Higgins said. “But I want the money to start a small restaurant.”

Higgins had expected to drive away with the new car in April, 1986, when he made his hole-in-one on the 163-yard seventh hole at the Glendora Country Club. But Sports Guarantee Unlimited, which insured the chamber in case anyone got lucky, said it wouldn’t pay off because 150 people had played in the tournament, 25 more than stipulated in the policy.

“All they (the chamber) had to do to solve the problem was to call us up before the tournament started and tell us they were going to have more players,” said Dick Earhart, president of Sports Guarantee.

Five weeks after the tournament, Higgins said, Theodore Meeder, attorney for the Chamber of Commerce, offered him $1,500 in place of the car. Higgins refused and filed suit against the chamber, Sports Guarantee, the dealership that agreed to supply the car and Glendora City Councilman Bob Kuhn, who bought the insurance policy for the chamber.

Three weeks before the Oct. 15 trial, the defendants offered Higgins $12,500, which he also refused.

The break in the hole-in-one case came when the four defendants made Higgins a final settlement offer last week outside the West Covina Courthouse.

“This thing was a whole can of worms,” Meeder said. “I’m just glad it’s over.”

Although the prize originally was to be a top-of-the-line 1986 Camaro Z-28 IROC, Higgins accepted a less expensive 1987 Camaro Z-28. Court Commissioner Leo V. LaRue, who was to have presided over the case, advised him to accept the offer, noting, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”

According to Donald Smith, Higgins’ attorney, the chamber contributed $3,000 toward the settlement, Kuhn paid $3,500, Sports Guarantee paid $5,000 and Grand Chevrolet chipped in $6,700.

Higgins, a bartender at the Redwood Inn in Covina, said he will use the money to start a 15-table restaurant, but hasn’t found a spot for it yet.

“A fairly good amateur golfer,” by his own description, Higgins passed up the Glendora tournament this year.