No other sport in modern history has contributed more to politics, economics and technology than golf, and it’s effects have been profound on both the city of Augusta and the United States as well. Baseball may be the national past time, but golf remains the benchmark sport when it comes to sheer impact and Augusta, Georgia is where the ball began rolling.
Golf was not invented in Augusta nor even in North America. The Ancient Romans played a game similar to the one now televised all over the world. Early golf in America was considered an elite and almost silly sport played among the rich while they sipped cocktails. What brought the game into the mainstream was not a slim, athletic, young Tiger Woods, but an obese, middle-aged President of the United States by the name of William Howard Taft and he honed his skills alongside his friend Archie Butt right here in Augusta.
Plenty of Presidents tried their hand at the game before Taft, but they did so privately so as not to be seen as elitist. Taft, on the other hand, played the game openly and invited the press. Major policy decisions were made on the golf course and that caused the press to dub Taft’s advisors “the golf cabinet.” Editorial cartoons of the era poked fun of Taft’s penchant for the game, yet it set a precedence as golf became the official sport of the American presidency and brought the game to the attention of the masses. Most of the high profile presidents of the 20th Century have made it a point to visit the hallowed grounds of Augusta, following in the footsteps of the only man to serve both as a President and Supreme Court Justice.
President Taft’s friend, military advisor, and golf mentor Archie Butt hailed from Augusta and the two both spent winters here playing their favorite game. In 1912, Butt was aboard the Titanic headed back to Washington from an “official” vacation in Europe when the ship steamed into history and his gallantry during the sinking made him a national hero. Butt was remembered as the perfect Southern gentleman, a military genius and a tiger on the links. Two years later, Taft returned to Augusta to dedicate the Butt Memorial Bridge in his golf buddy’s honor and that bridge still spans the Augusta Canal at 15th Street.
In 1908, Taft came to Augusta to play golf with one Joseph Lamar. While there is no historical account of the twosome’s conversation while on the links, it was not long afterward that Taft nominated Lamar to the Supreme Court. Lamar would continue as Justice as his boyhood friend and fellow golf enthusiast from Augusta, Woodrow Wilson, was sworn in as President. Wilson would carry on the tradition of making policy decisions while aiming for a hole in one.
The media coverage of Taft and Wilson’s golf exploits popularized the sport and brought wealthy northerners to Augusta every winter. Resorts such as the Partridge Inn and Bon Air sprung up to accommodate the visitors. If you visit the Partridge Inn, you should dine in the P.I. Bar and Grill since that is the spot where Presidents Taft, Wilson, and Harding dined along with the likes of the Rockefellers and other ultra rich visitors. What is now the main dining room on the east side of the building was actually a putting green for ladies during those times. Even though the hotels were available, most of the luminaries who came during the winter break rented houses and cottages in the Summerville area…sound familiar?
The winter season in early 20th Century Augusta was a big deal. The society papers in New York City and elsewhere printed who among the cream of the crop were spending their time in Augusta. Restaurants rolled out special menus to accommodate the guests and caterers and chefs were in high demand. The shops along Broad Street were stocked with the finest wares and the locals tended to be on their best behavior. The economic effect long before Bobby Jones dreamed his dream of an Invitational Tournament was powerful in terms of outside dollars being spent in the Garden City.
That economic effect continues today in Augusta with a Masters Tournament that has become a yearly saga almost on par with the Olympics when compared with empirical data. The evolution of golf’s impact and tourism opportunities has also led to a herculean conservation effort in Augusta with almost weekly volunteer clean-up and outdoor maintenance activities on the city’s waterways, medians, and green-spaces. After years of being derided in the national press as a city with a pristine golf course located among strip clubs, Augusta is now emerging as a metropolis offering dozens of worthwhile golf courses amid every other outdoor recreation activity imaginable at pristine parks, waterways and even swamps all just a few miles away from restaurants that are serving cuisine that is making the national foodies like Paula Deen and Oprah Winfrey jealous. Augusta is again setting a benchmark and this time the benchmark is “going green” and the city’s heritage of golf is part of the catalyst. The Augusta National’s creation of the green space along Washington Road near the course looks like a park year round when it is not used as a parking lot once a year and has been a major contribution to the “greening” of Augusta.
Finally, the game Augusta popularized has led to advances and availability of technology. In most accounts, the father of landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmstead, hated golf thinking it to be reserved only for the rich. Yet, he would have had to admit his designs of golf courses led to his innovations in irrigation and strategic planning that made possible the everyday modern landscape designs we have today. EZ-GO and Club Car continue to advance cutting edge light weight chassis designs, battery and even solar power for golf carts that one day may aid fossil fuel free automotive designs freeing the nation from the Middle East stranglehold. Communications have benefited as the Masters Tournament was the first major event to broadcast in Hi-Def television and will this year introduce 3-D television viewing long before other international spectacles. No other sport can claim these achievements. In many ways W.H. Taft was ahead of his time. The rotund president was the first to tool around in an automobile and he thought of golf, not war, as the ultimate challenge between men. If he were around today, he would likely be proud of his game and his adopted city of Augusta.
SCOTT HUDSON is the investigative reporter for WGAC News/Talk 580. You can read more of his work at wgac.com.
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