LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Like he had done many times before, Travis Weber went to Pinnacle Bank Arena with his uncle last month to watch a Nebraska men’s basketball game.
The game against Southern California was no ordinary outing for the 42-year-old from Lincoln. Far from it.
He went home the winner of a 2025 Porsche Macan valued at $75,000. All he had to do was putt a golf ball the length of the court through a tiny slot at the bottom of a board. Video of his slow-rolling putt, all 94 feet of it, and his Tiger Woods fist pump went viral.
Every night across the country, fans vie for prizes in contests staged during breaks in the action at sporting events big and small. In basketball, it might be halfcourt shots or length-of-the-court putts. In football, it might be throwing a ball at a target or kicking a field goal. In hockey, it might be taking a shot from center ice.
The vast majority of these real people efforts come and go with polite applause from the crowd, an amusing distraction while the real athletes are getting a rest. Some of them are a lot more fun than that, with explosions of joy and disbelief that something great just happened — and it’s been that way for a long time.