From the Hearth: Jerome Holtzman's No Cheering in the Press Box gets better with age. The reflections of the early inhabitants of the "toy department" does for sports reporting what oral histories like Laurence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times does for baseball and, for golf, Al Barkow's Getting' to the Dance Floor; that is, straight from the heart with no artificial sweeteners. (I don't mean to neglect Dave Anderson's boxing textbook: In the Corner. There are others.)

Shirley Povich was one of those interviewed by Holtzman. During their conversation he relayed a story of caddying as a boy for President Warren Harding, an inveterate golfer who may very well have contracted pneumonia playing golf in a downpour in Florida during the transition - my own working theory. Anyway, Shirley's tale prompted a letter. He wrote back, on a manual typewriter no less.

July 9, 1993

Dear Jim Apfelbaum,

Thousands of apologies for this so tardy reply to your letter. I have no idea why it was shuffled so far back on my desk, and am sorry.

It ought to be most interesting, your project on Presidential Golf. It was the sport of the White House, beginning at least with Woodrow Wilson.

[Meddling aside: Some years ago, Golf Collectors' Society founder Joe Murdoch sent me an intriguing ancient newspaper clipping, undated and unattributed, that mentions U.S. Grant witnessing and remarking on golf during a visit to St. Andrews. Grant didn't mention the incident in his memoirs and I'll be damned what I did with the clip. Taft, of course, was bully about the game despite entreaties from T.R., but that's another story. . .It is true that Wilson was on the golf course in Atlantic City while his nomination was going through at the Democratic Convention. THR]

I'm not sure about the Nixon hand mashie story, but I do agree with Tom Boswell that golf does reveal character. I have played with so many of the bastards.

I am not sure how much I can add to the Harding story. I did caddy for him one day after arriving in Washington in Sept. 1922. I can testify that he preferred knickers, with tassels hanging from the knee, as was the custom in those days. Also that he was a lousy golfer, in terms of par etc. He tried to flirt with 100. But no question of his passion for the game. On many an occasion he played the East Potomac Park public course just south of the White House.

When I met him it was on the private course of my employer, Edward B. McLean, owner of The Washington Post. He brought me to Washington to go to his college and work on his newspaper, a fairy-tale story. McLean no only took up golf because his friend, President Harding was an aficionado but built a golf course so he and the President and their buddies could play in private, although the Columbia and Chevy Chase clubs were near by. It is unbelievable that there was an 18-hole course at Friendship, Mr. McLean's estate, on Wisconsin Ave., which now borders downtown Washington. Eighteen great holes, with the only concession, 17 greens, a big one served two holes, a la St. Andrews. Mr. McLean's pro at the time was Leo Diegel, who had just won the U.S. Open, and I recall foursomes comprised of the President, his secretary, George B. Christian, Bobby Cruickshank, Bob McDonald (the great iron player), and Diegel and others. Mr. McLean, 225 pounds could hit the hell out of the ball and played in the mid-eighties. He would bring different pros, including Freddy McLeod, to Bar Harbor to give him season-long lessons. What a life. What a world then. What wealth (no income tax). What gladness that I was a little piece of it.

I wish you well with all your projects.

Sincerely,

Shirley Povich

My Design Philosophy by Desmond Muirhead
The Best Advice by Hale Irwin
Golf Course Design by Jack Nicklaus
Caddying for President Warren Harding by Shirley Povich