AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Augusta National has an incredible way of making things disappear. Trees. Houses. Roads. If the most powerful golf club on earth wants something, it buys it, and it has spent the past 15 years gobbling up the property around its borders.

An entire neighborhood once sat across from Gate 6-A at the Masters. The golf club spent more than $40 million to bulldoze it into a free parking lot, and now all that remains is the simple three-bedroom house at 1112 Stanley Road that Herman and Elizabeth Thacker built in 1959.

A map of the house at 1112 Stanley Drive, which is just a short walk from Augusta National, home of the Masters.

They raised their two children there, and as that family expanded to include five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, they still found a way to cram everybody inside those simple brick walls for the holidays.

They love it here. And so, when the man representing that powerful golf club came to inquire about buying their home to expand their parking lot, their message was polite but forceful: Thanks, but no thanks.

"We really don't want to go," Elizabeth Thacker said.

But what about the potential seven-figure payout, the type of offers that dozens of their neighbors not only couldn't refuse but jumped at the opportunity to take right to the bank?

"Money ain't everything," Herman Thacker said.

He was sitting on his patio, enjoying a perfect spring afternoon with the woman he celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary with in November. Elizabeth sat a few feet away, a copy of the Augusta Chronicle in her lap. All around these octogenarians, there are hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of parked cars. Fans are leaving the Masters after the practice round, and few probably notice the tiny house sitting at the edge of the lot.

Even fewer still probably gave any thought to the people who live inside, and the Thackers are fine with that. Oh, every now and then a patron will offer a few kind words about the landscaping or even ask for gardening tips, and the Thackers are happy to give them.

They'll even invite the man representing Augusta National inside whenever he visits. And make no mistake: He still visits.

"He'll come by here every so often and he'll say, 'Just want to let you know we're still interested in your property,'" Herman Thacker said. "And we'll tell him the same thing again."

That message: Augusta National's money can't buy everything after all.

A vanishing neighborhood

Stanley Drive was once part of a nice, if modest, Augusta neighborhood. There were oak trees and backyard swing sets, and it was quiet enough that kids could play in the street without their parents needing to worry.

It was convenient, too. Washington Road, the main commercial center for this Georgia city with just under 200,000 residents, is within walking distance. So is the home of the Masters, which is hidden behind green fences, tall bushes and guard houses.

Herman and Elizabeth Thacker won't sell their modest home to Augusta National, no matter how much they offer.

The Thackers can't remember exactly when Augusta National started making offers for their neighbors houses, but Elizabeth said that "people went for it big time." Why not? They were offering about $250,000, good money for the mostly small homes.

And then, when most of the houses were gone, they were offering much more for the ones that were left behind. William Hatcher kept saying no, too, until 2013. Augusta National eventually paid $960,000 for his three bedroom home at 2704 Hillside Lane, according to property records, and even at that price he only sold it reluctantly.

"When they tore the house down, my kids were here and they went up to watch the demolition," Hatcher said over the phone. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't watch. We can still sort of tell where it used to be, but no one else can."

Jerry Thacker, Herman's brother, held out for a while, too. He owned one of the nicest houses in the neighborhood, a two-story white colonial that sat on two acres of prime real estate.

It was too prime, it turned out. Augusta National wanted to redirect Berckmans Road, the noisy street that runs along the border of the course, to improve the flow of traffic during tournament week. The new road -- which the club loaned $17 million to the city to build -- would go directly through his front yard.

"We didn't have a choice," Jerry Thacker said. "We had lived there for 22 years and hoped to be there for 22 more."

Augusta National bought that white house and two other properties from Thacker. The price: $3.6 million.

Even then, even at those substantial prices, his brother and his sister-in-law wouldn't budge. Oh, they did sell another property to the golf course that they owned, a smaller house across the street.

"They called us over there the first time and made us an offer," Herman Thacker said. "I asked him, 'Is that your bottom line?" He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Well, we'll see you then,' and we got up and walked out. It wasn't long before he was calling back over here, wanting to know if he could come talk to us again."

He did. The price: $1.2 million. The house and everything in it was gone within a week.

A grandson on the PGA Tour

The Thackers like living near the famous golf course. Herman would wake up early during Masters week, rush over and set up his green folding chair near a green, then walk home to make one of his grandsons breakfast. Then, later in the day, they'd both return to watch the best in the world.

That grandson took quite a liking to the sport. His name is Scott Brown, and he is now a 32-year-old player on the PGA Tour who is still trying to qualify for his first Masters. If he does, there will be more than one curious reporter walking down the Thackers' driveway.

They plan on being here when it happens. Fifty-one weeks a year, after all, they live in perhaps the most quiet neighborhood in all of Augusta now. The other week doesn't bother them much, either.

Oh, they aren't happy with a black gate that the club put up a few feet away from their driveway because it opens into their yard, writing the club a letter to express that dissatisfaction.

"It looks like a prison, doesn't it?" Elizabeth said. "It's got to go! They're probably gonna say, 'YOU gonna have to go!"

She lets out a big laugh. They know that, eventually, Augusta National will own their house. As their old neighbor William Hatcher said, "the big club will have it someday," because the men in the green jackets will always be here, and they'll always have the money.

But not now, not as long as they're alive. Herman Thacker jokes that Augusta National is trying to buy everything "all the way down to I-20," the interstate highway that is two miles away. And maybe it is.

The house at 1112 Stanley Drive, however, is just not for sale.

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.