She sent it home: this great-gran sunk an extraordinary 94-foot putt to win a brand-new car.
Mary Ann Wakefield, 86, was attending a basketball game with her family at the University of Mississippi on Saturday evening, February 24.
As halftime came, she took to the hardwood for the mid-match challenge – putting a golf ball from one end of the court to the other, at a whopping 94-feet, with the chance of winning a car.
The video, posted by the campus’ Ole Miss Athletics Twitter account, shows Mary Ann lining up the hole that lies far in the horizon of the court.
With calm and collected composure, Mary Ann hit the ball with pinpoint precision and power – sending it gliding across the court. The commentators couldn’t believe what they were seeing, the crowd started to buzz with heady anticipation.
‘I’ll tell you what, that’s looking good, that’s looking really good,’ the Ole Miss arena host said after the ball soared past the halfway logo. Soon enough, the ball sunk into the hole – and the crowd went nuts.
Ole Miss may have lost 103-78 to the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide team on the night, but nobody is talking about the basketball – Mary Ann’s achievement, for which she was rewarded with a new 2020 Nissan Altima, has been a huge hit on social media, with thousands retweeting and liking the video, as well as congratulating the great-gran.
One user, who watched the putt take place in real-time, wrote: ‘Was behind her and I knew at half court it had a chance… what a beautiful putt! Highlight of the evening!’ Another attendee wrote: ‘I attended this game and couldn’t believe she sank this across the court putt.’
Others have showered the great-gran with praise of her golfing schools, with some comparing her to Happy Gilmore. One wrote: ‘She def did some quick maths to triangulate that shot! She took a good 5-6 seconds to calculate before putting.’
In the fallout of her vehicle-winning putt, Mary Ann’s daughter Sandra McDougall-Mitchell later took to Twitter, writing: ‘She just won a car with a 94-ft putt at the Ole Miss basketball game. This couldn’t have happened to a better person. Mother of 7, grandmother and great grandmother. 86 yrs young.’
It’s like Chubbs Peterson said: ‘All you gotta do is tap it in.’
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.