Four Score and Seven Years of Presidential Golfing | The Presidency
Whistlestop: Presidential History and Trivia
Slate Podcasts
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 April 2018
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode of Whistlestop travels back to April 13, 1953 when Washington DC’s baseball team, the Senators, hoped the nation’s new President would deliver the first pitch of the season. Instead, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was on the links of Augusta, enjoying the sport he loved best of all.
Whistlestop is Slate’s podcast about presidential campaign history. Hosted by our political correspondent and Political Gabfest panelist John Dickerson, each installment will revisit a memorable (or even a forgotten) moment from America's quadrennial carnival.
Join Slate Plus for full, ad-free access to Whistlestop and your other favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Whistlestop show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/whistlestopplus to get access wherever you listen.
Podcast production and edit by Jocelyn Frank. Research by Brian Rosenwald.
Email: whistlestop@slate.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Whistle Stop, a podcast of the presidency. |
| 0:04.5 | I'm John Dickerson, co-host of CBS this morning. |
| 0:10.0 | This Thursday, April 5th, 2018, the Masters Golf Tournament begins at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. |
| 0:17.4 | If you're a fan of golf, you know this. |
| 0:19.0 | You have been patiently waiting in your green jacket or maybe even your green footy pajamas. And if you're one of those putting-headed types |
| 0:24.8 | who live from sport to sport, then this was a powerful week with the NCAA Championship taking place |
| 0:30.4 | on Monday. Or you may not care about golf at all, but presidents certainly do, of the last 18 presidents, |
| 0:37.2 | starting with William Howard Taft, |
| 0:39.5 | who piloted his ample frame around the T-box. Fifteen of those 18 presidents have chased the |
| 0:45.7 | little white ball around the verdant grass. Presidents may come from different parties, be free |
| 0:50.9 | traders or no, bother with telling the truth or make up whatever piffle comes |
| 0:55.2 | rounding in their melon, but all differences are bleached away when it comes to the 18-home |
| 1:00.2 | march of delight and vexation. Presidents are on for playing golf. What is it about the sport |
| 1:06.3 | that attracts these men? We may or may not have that answer for you, but through this story of perhaps |
| 1:13.5 | the greatest enthusiast of the game, who has ever served as commander-in-chief, we will at least |
| 1:18.2 | interrogate the question of presidents and golf. So herewith, the story of Dwight David Eisenhower, |
| 1:23.5 | and how he popularized the game through an elbow to the national pastime, practiced covert |
| 1:28.8 | arborism, and changed the White House grounds and Oval Office forever, or at least the Oval |
| 1:35.1 | Office floors, which had to be replaced after the two-term Kansan had so pockmarked them up |
| 1:41.4 | by wearing his golf shoes indoors. |
| 1:47.2 | Our whistle stop today is April 13, 1953. |
| 1:52.3 | The Washington senators are hosting the opening day of the American League against the New York Yankees. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.