Many modern presidents have been criticized for the amount of time they spend on the golf course. The press gleefully notes each time the commander in chief hits the links, almost overtly suggesting the president should be in the oval office running the world rather than chasing a little white ball with a stick.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was no different, and it appears the 34th president paid little attention to the press criticism. According to Golf Digest, Eisenhower hit the golf course more than 1,000 times during his two-term presidency and simply let his vice president, Richard Nixon, counter the reporters.
“If the president spent as much time playing golf as Truman spent playing poker, then the president would be able to beat Ben Hogan,” Nixon was quoted as saying at the time.
Eisenhower is the only known president to have been a member of the Augusta National and he was definitely a prominent member.
Shortly after being sworn into office in 1953, the Augusta National began building a residence for the president on the grounds of the course. The building, located near the 10th tee, was curiously dubbed “Eisenhower’s Cabin,” but it was anything but a cabin.
With three stories and seven bedrooms, the cabin was also outfitted with state of the art communications and security equipment needed by the Cold War president and his staff. The building was erected on top of a bunker/basement that was used primarily by the Secret Service.
The cabin, partially designed by the Secret Service, served as a mini-White House on the 29 occasions that Eisenhower and his First Lady, Mamie, visited Augusta, according to Golf Monthly.
The only other president known to have stayed in the cabin was Ronald Reagan, who hunkered down there in 1983 with his advisors as they planned the invasion of Grenada. That trip was briefly upset when Charles Harris, a Columbia County man, rammed the gates of the Augusta National with his truck and took hostages in the club house while demanding to speak to the president.
Despite having nearly been assassinated almost two years earlier, Reagan apparently didn’t allow the situation to interfere with his game. According to the Augusta Chronicle archives, Reagan attempted to call Harris from the 16th hole before the man surrendered and was taken into custody.
Another, much more serious event would occur the same day necessitating Reagan to abandon his vacation when he learned that 283 U.S. Marines were killed by a car bomb that exploded outside the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.
Eisenhower’s Cabin was renovated in 2018 and still has the presidential seal displayed over the front porch.
While Eisenhower might have been the most famous and prominent member of the Augusta National, he did not have as much clout as one might think.
There was a particular loblolly pine tree on the 17th fairway that continually vexed the president’s game. At a club meeting in 1956, Eisenhower made a motion to have the tree removed to the disdain of Chairman Clifford Roberts.
Rather than allowing the leader of the free world to be embarrassed by being voted down, Roberts hastily adjourned the meeting. However, Eisenhower got the message, the offending tree was going to stay put.
Mother nature finally overruled the Augusta National board, something Eisenhower apparently could not do, when in February 2014 an ice storm severely damaged the tree, forcing its removal.
The Augusta National never replaced the tree.
…And that is something you might not have known.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
