When people think of Augusta National, azaleas, dogwoods and the world’s greatest golf tournament come to mind, not an armed hostage situation.
But it happened.
In October of 1983, nearly 40 years ago, President Ronald Reagan visited Augusta to play a round of golf and engage in some behind the scenes electioneering as the 1984 election was barely a year away.
Secret Service agents certainly remained on high alert everywhere the president went as the assassination attempt that nearly killed Reagan in 1981 was still fresh on everyone’s mind. But what could possibly go wrong at the Augusta National?
Even prior to the massive expansion that is the National we all know today, the golf course was seemingly impenetrable with high fences surrounded by walls of bamboo and locked gates all over the property.
However, a locked gate is no match for a two-ton pickup truck.
That October, Charles Harris, 45, of Columbia County, was dealing with a life that was falling apart. According to Golf Digest, Harris’ father had died recently, he lost his job at a local paper mill and his wife had left him, taking his three kids with her.
It was the kind of situation that makes great lyrics for a country song.
When Harris heard on the radio that U.S. Steel was preparing to lay off hundreds of workers, he was furious that American jobs were being lost with the jobs going overseas and, in his mind, the only person who could fix the situation was the president of the United States.
Harris decided to do what he thought any good ole’ boy would do: he would have a face-to-face chat with the president.
Reagan’s visit to Augusta was not widely publicized, but according to Golf Digest, a police friend of Harris told him that Reagan was coming to town to play golf.
Harris decided the timing was perfect. He grabbed his .38 revolver, hopped in his trusty Dodge 4X4 truck and headed toward the Augusta National, never stopping when he encountered the locked gate.
The truck crashed through the gate, and Harris kept going until he reached the club house. It is a minor miracle that Harris was not met with hail of gun fire, but somehow, he managed to evade the Secret Service and make his way into the club house where he took seven people as hostages including two White House staffers.
According to the Washington Examiner, Harris fired his weapon into the ceiling and demanded to speak with the president, who was playing the 16th hole at the time.
As hostage negotiators descended upon the scene, Reagan tried in vain to call the pro shop and talk Harris down, but either the line kept dropping or Harris kept hanging up. Press reports from the time are unclear, but it does not seem that Harris ever got to actually speak with the president.
After a stand-off that lasted several hours, Harris finally released his hostages one by one and was taken into custody. He was later sentenced to 10 years in prison and was released in 1987, according to UPI.
Harris died in 2007.
Since that time, even though most presidents since Reagan enjoyed playing the game of golf, no sitting president has visited the Augusta National. Or, if one did, it was under the veil of secrecy that the Augusta National is famous for.
…And that is some you may not have known.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
