The Price is Right giveth, and The Price is Right taketh away. Television’s longest-running game show has seen its share of contestants win big, like Cynthia Azevedo, who won $1 million dollars in 2008 on The Clock Game, correctly guessing the price of a sofa in 1 second, and the price of an exerciser in 7. It has also seen its share of spectacular failures, like Corey, whose last name can not be disclosed lest he be relentlessly harassed after guessing that a quilted hammock — that’s right, a hammock — was priced at $7,000, a whopping $6,120 overestimate. Which brings us to 84-year-old Margaret, who in 2015 placed herself in the first category by unleashing her inner tiger. Tiger Woods, that is.
Margaret made it to the Price is Right stage, slowly, after winning a Bidder’s Row round. The game she would be playing was “Hole In One… Or Two,” where contestants have two attempts to sink a putt. Fail, and she gets the famed “bum-bum-ba-dum, whaaaa” loser horn. Win, and she goes home with a new car, valued at $16,000. Or $28,800 if you’re Corey. Host Drew Carey explains the rules and demonstrates his technique, sinking his putt effortlessly, having played once or twice before. He helps Margaret up to the putting green, gives her the putter and a golf ball, and takes a step back. Margaret takes her first shot, but misses. Thankfully, she still has the “Or Two” shot to go, so she tees the ball up again, makes her shot, and straight into the hole it goes. That’s right, kids. Granny’s got herself some wheels.
84-Year-Old Nails a One-in-$16,000 Putt on ‘The Price is Right’
Naturally, her one-in-$16,000 successful putt went viral, launching Margaret into her 15-minutes of fame worldwide. But no one can just be happy for an elderly woman who wins big on a game show. That’s not the society we live in. Heck, Margaret herself probably remembers a time when people were actually happy about other people’s successes. But I digress. Out came the haters, golf purists that took offense to her form. It isn’t a conventional shot by any means, as she stands facing forward and kind of pushes the ball forward with the putter, much like how a novice bowler swings the ball between his legs — that’s what she said — and rolls it toward the pins. Technically, that stroke was made illegal by the USGA in 1968 with a rule stating:
“The player must not make a stroke on the putting green from a stance astride, or with either foot touching, the line of putt or an extension of that line behind the ball.”
However, no less an expert than gold legend Sam Snead had defended the stroke as ideal for elderly players back in an interview with Sports Illustrated in 1967, saying, “Not too many [elderly] people can bend over quite as well as I can, but I think it is good for old golfers. They don’t have to coordinate two hands, only one.”
84-Year-Old Would Have Had to Shell Out to Bring Home her Prize from ‘The Price is Right’
Sure, Margaret may have won a brand-new car, but did she bring it home? As nice as it would be to imagine that Margaret hopped in and drove that bad boy off the set like a bat out of hell, or a snail out of heck, the truth is that winning a car on The Price is Right isn’t as simple as that. Contestants that win cars on the show don’t get said cars until after the episode airs to avoid spoilers, and that can be months after the recording date. In addition, the car they see on the set isn’t the same one they bring home. The show purchases the same model from a car dealership in the prize winner’s hometown to be picked up there, while the one on the show is returned to the dealership that supplied it. There’s no cash equivalent, either: you win the car, you take the car.
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“Bob, you must have had one hell of a night!”
Of course, you’re gonna take the car, right? Not so fast. It’s far more complicated than just that. To put it into perspective, in 2013, Tacoma, Washington schoolteacher Sheree Heil won the most expensive prize in the show’s history, a $157,300 Audi R8 Spyder (per the previously cited Collider). CBS sent her paperwork to the effect that the taxes in California alone would total $12,000, Washington taxes would have been another $14,915, and the federal taxes would be around $34,453. The total to bring home her shiny new sports car: $61,368. Call me crazy, but unless Margaret has some kick-ass pension going on, even a fraction of that is going to be tough. Whether she actually took the prize, though, is unknown.
Margaret’s car-winning putt isn’t only The Price is Right connection to golf, by the way. Bob Barker‘s hilarious punch-up with Adam Sandler‘s Happy Gilmore in Happy Gilmore is one of the most iconic comic moments in Hollywood history. He was only 73 at the time, though, so Margaret has that over him. The Price Is Right is available to stream on YouTube TV..
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