Most modern-day presidents play golf. Indeed, the media keeps track of how many times per week the current president plays the sport. All of that started with President William Howard Taft who popularized the game right here in Augusta, Ga.
At the turn of the 20th century, the game of golf was derided as a “rich man’s game.” It was a sport played by the Vanderbuilts and Rockefellers. In fact, golf was not really even considered a sport by many, but rather just an excuse for the rich to wander around outdoors hitting golf balls while sipping highballs.
Presidents were known to sneak off to play away from the watchful eye of the media. Taft changed all of that and actually invited reporters to watch him play. At first, the media was aghast that a president would openly play the game.
Facing a backlash at first, Taft wrote:
“I know that there is nothing more democratic than golf; that there is nothing which furnishes a greater test of character and self-restraint, nothing which puts one more on an equality with one’s fellows, or, I may say, puts one lower than one’s fellows, than the game of golf.”
Taft spent so much time on the golf course with his advisers, that the media called them “the Golf Cabinet.”
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One of his favorite courses to play was The Bon Air Golf Club, which is known today as the Augusta Country Club.
Normally, Taft would play with his best friend, Archibald Butt, but that is a story for another time.
One reason Taft and his group visited Augusta so often was that the railroad line only went as far as this city, so the Summerville area became a vacation spot long before Florida became a prime spot during wintertime. Wealthy northerners would flock to Augusta during the winter months and enjoy the lavish Bon Air Hotel as well as the Partridge Inn, which had its own putting green for ladies.
After winning the 1908 election, Taft retired to Augusta to play his favorite game and relax prior to taking office in March of 1909.
Taft would not be known much for progress in his administration, but he was the first president to own a motorcar and the only president to serve as chief justice of the Supreme Court, a role he liked much better than the presidency.
It was Bobby Jones who would later establish Augusta as the international city of golf by creating the Augusta National Golf Club and its annual Masters Tournament, but it was the portly President Taft that put the game of golf and Augusta’s association with the game on the map.
That is something you might not have known!
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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