Quicken Loans Launches a Mortgage Contest You Can Actually Win

Remember when Quicken Loans teamed up with Warren Buffett and offered $1 billion to anyone who could create a perfect March Madness bracket?

Well, that was a huge waste of time because it’s pretty much statistically impossible to achieve perfection. That’s exactly why they offered $1 billion in the first place.

I think the only winners there were Quicken and Warren Buffett, the latter having insured the grand prize we all knew would never be paid out, and the former getting all types of great press.

Now You Just Need a Professional Golfer to Make a Hole-in-One

Today, the stakes are a lot lower, but the probability of winning is a lot higher.

The online mortgage lender is currently offering up a full year of mortgage payments if a golfer makes a hole-in-one on any hole during any PGA Tour event in calendar year 2014.

There are 18 events left this year, and lots of golfers in those events, so the odds of a hole-in-one are a lot better than a perfect bracket.

I actually looked it up and apparently a pro golfer has a 1 in 2,500 chance of sinking a hole-in-one, whereas an amateur golfer has odds of 1 in 12,500.

From 1983 to 2003, there were a reported 631 aces on the PGA tour, or about 32 per year.

And there are apparently 150,000 hole-in-ones each year out of 490 million rounds of golf, though you have to wonder how many of them are lying…

So there’s a decent chance some lucky homeowners will get 12 months of principal and interest payments paid for by the nation’s second largest lender.  Yep, they’re now number two after Wells Fargo.

Just note that the max prize is $12,000, or $1,000 per month. Those with jumbo loans won’t exactly get their mortgage paid, but every little bit helps.

Somebody Already Won Mortgage Payments for a Year

This past weekend, the company was the title sponsor of the Quicken Loans National, and pledged a $1 million grand prize if any golfer aced the 10th hole at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.

Obviously nobody did, but there was an ace on the second hole thanks to Peter Hanson, which allowed Arline Deacon of Fayetteville, Georgia to earn a first prize (12 months of mortgage payments).

Quicken is also doling out 60 second prizes (10 per month), which will cover one month’s mortgage payment, minimum $500 up to a maximum of $2,000, regardless of whether anyone aces a hole on the PGA tour.

The Quicken Loans Hole-In-One Sweepstakes began on May 19 and runs until December 6th.  For the record, you don’t need to have a mortgage (or own a home) to be eligible for the prize, and no purchase is necessary to enter.