Welcome to the American Story.

Stories about what it is that makes America beautiful

and worthy of our love.

This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.

I call this one one iron.

For much of its history, golf was viewed as a country club game, which at best tolerated the masses.

At Augusta National in Georgia, the site of the prestigious Masters Championship,

multi-millionaires only need apply for membership

with no guarantee of acceptance.

Dwight Eisenhower, an avid golfer,

was granted that rare privilege.

He kept hitting his tee ball into the same loblolly pine on the 17th hole.

So he asked that it be taken down, claiming that it was unfairly positioned.

The club politely ignored the request.

Even the President of the United States, the leader of the free world, and the former commander of Allied

powers in Europe, didn't have that much pull.

At least the club was kind enough to name it, the Eisenhower tree.

Which brings us to a Democratic Party bumper sticker

during the 1956 campaign.

Ben Hogan for president did read

if we're going to have a golfer let's have a good one

then Hogan was born and raised in hard-scrabble Texas, about as far away as you can get from the

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