Palmer presents Ike into World Golf Hall of Fame

Shortly after slipping on the green jacket for winning his first of four Masters in 1958, Arnold Palmer's celebration was interrupted when Augusta National chairman Cliff Roberts pulled him to the side.

Would you mind, Roberts requested, playing with a friend of mine tomorrow morning? Palmer immediately — and enthusiastically — agreed. Some 12 hours later, he stepped to the first tee at Augusta National and met President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

"It was a fantastic day and a fantastic round of golf," Palmer said from his Bay Hill Country Club office in Orlando. "He was not only a great president and a great general but a great person. He was a guy who you could relate to, a regular guy on the golf course and a regular guy, period. We became very close friends almost immediately."

The friendship continues Monday when Palmer presents Eisenhower as the first president to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla. Joining Eisenhower, who died March 28, 1969, as the newest members of the Hall will be 1977 PGA Championship winner Lanny Wadkins; two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal; and Christy O'Connor, who won 24 times on the European Tour.

"One would be hard-pressed to find anyone who did more to popularize the game of golf, not only in the United States but throughout the world, than President Eisenhower," Palmer said. "His passion for the game was the inspiration for literally millions of people picking up the game. To have the average person read about Ike and his golf and his enjoyment of the game gave golf one of the greatest shots in the arm it ever got.

"President Eisenhower received many honors in his life, but I think he would have really enjoyed this one."

The Hall of Fame, in partnership with the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kan., created a display featuring a selection of memorabilia — including Eisenhower's Augusta National Golf Club items such as golf shoulder patches, a signature Augusta-motif yellow tie, a green personal leather case with Augusta's emblem and a green Masters jacket given to Eisenhower.

Other artifacts include various golf-themed accessories found on the former president's desk — a Ben Hogan trophy, awarded to Eisenhower in 1955 for making a comeback from a physical disability; and a putter referred to as "The Chestah," a gag putter from Bob Hope.

Eisenhower, who starred in football and baseball in high school and was a star halfback at West Point before a knee injury ended his playing days, took up golf while stationed at Fort Leavenworth at age 37. In 1948, Eisenhower, who commanded the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in 1942 and was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France on D-Day in 1944, made his first visit to Augusta National.

After WWII, Eisenhower became president of Columbia University. After assuming supreme command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951, he successfully ran for the presidency of the United States in 1952 and took office in 1953, the first of two terms.

Soon after taking residence in the White House, Eisenhower and the United States Golf Association (using privately donated money) built a putting green with a small sand trap on the South Lawn near the Oval Office — a green Eisenhower made frequent use of.

During his eight years in the White House — and for many years after he left office — Eisenhower became the face of golf in the public eye. According to his daily itinerary, he played more than 1,000 days of golf as president, including many rounds at Turnberry, Augusta National and Cypress Point. Eisenhower, who played with captains of industry, dignitaries and politicians the world over, including Vice President Richard Nixon, once shot 77 at Cherry Hills and 79s at Augusta National, Burning Tree and Gettysburg, according to a 1964 Golf Digest story.

In 1968, Eisenhower, then 77, had a hole-in-one on the 104-yard 13th hole at Seven Lakes Country Club in Palm Springs.

Most of his playing days as president were spent at Augusta National, which built a cabin for Eisenhower near the 10th tee, complete with space for Secret Service agents on the bottom floor. The club eventually memorialized Eisenhower by naming other places on Augusta National's grounds for him, including Ike's Pond on the par-3 course.

In a letter to the Detroit News on May 1, 1953, Eisenhower wrote, "While I know that I speak with the partisanship of an enthusiast, golf obviously provides one of our best forms of healthful exercise, accompanied by good fellowship and companionship. It is a sport in which the whole American family can participate — fathers, mothers, sons and daughters alike."

The public took notice of Eisenhower's love for golf — and took to the golf course. According to Don Van Natta Jr., author of First Off The Tee, when Eisenhower took office in 1953, 3.2 million Americans played golf. By 1961, the number had more than doubled.

"Under the kind of pressure he felt during his adult life, golf and oil painting provided him great relief, a short respite from the demands of work that really helped refocus the mind," said granddaughter Susan Eisenhower, who took lessons at Augusta National as a kid and went on to the course with her grandfather on occasion. "I know firsthand his enthusiasm about golf. There are other presidents who played golf more, but he popularized the sport when Americans were coming back from war and raising families."

Palmer also knows firsthand of Eisenhower's love for the game — and his commitment to mastering the game. Shortly after Palmer won his final Masters in 1964, he teamed up with Eisenhower, Jimmy Demaret and Ray Bolger for a golf exhibition at Merion in Ardmore, Pa. Just before teeing off, Palmer noticed blood all over Eisenhower's shirt. Turns out Palmer had told Eisenhower to keep his right elbow tucked as close to his body to generate more power and possibly cure his horrendous slice.

Eisenhower followed the instruction to a tee.

"When he played golf he would wear a military-style belt with metal buckles and adjustments, and the biggest buckle was on his right hip," Palmer said. "He was rubbing his elbow against the buckle on every swing, so much that he started to bleed. He acted as if it were nothing but a scratch."

Palmer often thinks back to the days he spent on the golf course with Eisenhower and the nights the two spent talking about everything from politics to sports. In Palmer's Latrobe, Pa., home is an oil painting done by and given to him by Eisenhower on Palmer's 37th birthday. Eisenhower, who began painting during World War II at the suggestion of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, painted a field and a barn from his farm in Gettysburg, Pa. Palmer said it's one of his most prized possessions.

One of Palmer's highest honors, he said, was addressing Congress in 1990 on the 100th anniversary of Eisenhower's birth. Palmer will tap into that speech — which received a standing ovation — when he introduces Eisenhower to the Hall of Fame.

"If there has ever been anybody that deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, it is President Eisenhower," Palmer said. "His love for the game, and his love for all that the game stands for, deserves the recognition he will be getting.

"He deserves immense credit for advancing the game of golf."