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Interview With Don Van Natta

Aired May 06, 2003 - 15:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien at CNN Center. Judy Woodruff not feeling well at the moment. And while we give her a break to get herself together, she will be back, of course, for "INSIDE POLITICS" in about 40 minutes, I'm going to start a new series on her behalf. It's called "Judy Woodruff's Page Turners." In the days and weeks ahead, Judy is going to feature authors of new books covering a wide range of interesting events people and ideas.
Today's book is called "First Off the Tee." It's about American presidents and the game of golf and how so many men who have occupied the Oval Office have shared a love for that sport. The author of that book is "New York Times" correspondent Don Van Natta and Judy spoke with him earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON VAN NATTA, AUTHOR, "FIRST OFF THE TEE": Golf is the favorite sport of the presidents in the past century. It's a perfect way to really look at the presidents as they let their guard down.

You know most presidents don't invite reporters to come out on the golf course with them. They leave them behind on the first tee. And we don't see them again until the 18th green. And they really let their guard down on the golf course and they're really themselves. And it's a way to really study their characters and their personalities.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: I think the president that we all identify with golf is Dwight Eisenhower. It really consumed him. It was his passion.

VAN NATTA: It was. He's the president that we most associate with golf. He played 800 rounds over the course of eight years.

Ike loved the game so much that at the end of every day he would pull back from his desk, put on his golf cleats, grab his 8 iron and his putter and walk across the Oval Office floor, leaving a duffer's trail in the floorboards of the Oval Office, go outside and practice his putting and his chip on the custom-built putting green built by the United States Golf Association for him.

WOODRUFF: Now John F. Kennedy of course came right after Eisenhower, but he didn't let the public in on the fact that he loved golf. VAN NATTA: That's right. It was Kennedy's closely guarded private passion. And the reason for that is Kennedy and the Democrats made so much of Ike's love of golf. They really used it as a symbol of Ike's passiveness and old age.

And so Kennedy kept the game in the closet. It wasn't until he was president for three months that Americans first realized that Kennedy was a golfer and a pretty good one. He had a photograph taken at a course in Palm Beach. And he was still so nervous about the symbolism of playing golf and people reminded of Ike that he stood on the first tee without a club in his hands. He just stood next to his father who had a driver and he wouldn't even be photographed with a club in his hands.

WOODRUFF: You have a whole section, Don Van Natta, about cheaters and golf. Two of them I have to ask you about. Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, with whom you actually played a round of golf.

VAN NATTA: Yes, I did.

Well, Nixon, of course, it shouldn't surprise anyone that he was in my "Hail to the Cheats" foursome. Nixon used to say, oh, that didn't count when he'd miss a three or four-foot putt.

And I did play with Bill Clinton. It kind of surprised me that he agreed to play with the because in 1999 in "The New York Times" I had accused him of bending the rules on the golf course. Yet he still agreed to play with me last August at a club near his home in Chappaqua. We had a great time over the 18 holes. He abided by the rules for about a hole and a half, and after that he let his guard down and played his usual round of 200 swings to card an 82.

WOODRUFF: Literally he took almost that many swings?

VAN NATTA: He did. He took 200 swings. The way he does it, I called them "Billigans" in the book. And the way he does it is he takes three shots off the fairway, two or three shots off the -- off around the area around the green, three shots off the tee, and he basically plays a sort of game of -- a shell game with his golf balls. And asks his playing partners, now which one is my first ball? And so they sort of become coconspirators with the president.

And I said, Mr. President, it's this good ball here closest to the green. That was your first shot. And more often than not it wasn't.

WOODRUFF: And finally, you look at the Bushes, father and son. What do we learn about, especially about our current president from the way he plays golf?

VAN NATTA: Our current president likes to go for the green. I mean he does that politically. He's known to be a bit of a risk taker and he's that way on the golf course.

He's not the kind of golfer who likes to lay up and play it safe. If he's got a 200 or 220 yard shot off the fairway to get to the green, he'll take a wood and try to put it as close to the hole as possible.

He and his dad love the game. But not so much to try to shoot low scores. It's more important they get around the course quickly. So the time elapsed is more important than the score.

And the needle each other quite a bit. You can really see their love for each other on the golf course. In recent years, George Bush Sr., The elder George Bush, his game has gone in the tank a little bit. He's shooting from the ladies' tees though he calls them the forward tees. And the current president, George W. Bush likes to needle his dad and say, don't trip over your skirt, Betsy, before you hit the next one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 6, 2003 - 15:15   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien at CNN Center. Judy Woodruff not feeling well at the moment. And while we give her a break to get herself together, she will be back, of course, for "INSIDE POLITICS" in about 40 minutes, I'm going to start a new series on her behalf. It's called "Judy Woodruff's Page Turners." In the days and weeks ahead, Judy is going to feature authors of new books covering a wide range of interesting events people and ideas.
Today's book is called "First Off the Tee." It's about American presidents and the game of golf and how so many men who have occupied the Oval Office have shared a love for that sport. The author of that book is "New York Times" correspondent Don Van Natta and Judy spoke with him earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON VAN NATTA, AUTHOR, "FIRST OFF THE TEE": Golf is the favorite sport of the presidents in the past century. It's a perfect way to really look at the presidents as they let their guard down.

You know most presidents don't invite reporters to come out on the golf course with them. They leave them behind on the first tee. And we don't see them again until the 18th green. And they really let their guard down on the golf course and they're really themselves. And it's a way to really study their characters and their personalities.

JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: I think the president that we all identify with golf is Dwight Eisenhower. It really consumed him. It was his passion.

VAN NATTA: It was. He's the president that we most associate with golf. He played 800 rounds over the course of eight years.

Ike loved the game so much that at the end of every day he would pull back from his desk, put on his golf cleats, grab his 8 iron and his putter and walk across the Oval Office floor, leaving a duffer's trail in the floorboards of the Oval Office, go outside and practice his putting and his chip on the custom-built putting green built by the United States Golf Association for him.

WOODRUFF: Now John F. Kennedy of course came right after Eisenhower, but he didn't let the public in on the fact that he loved golf. VAN NATTA: That's right. It was Kennedy's closely guarded private passion. And the reason for that is Kennedy and the Democrats made so much of Ike's love of golf. They really used it as a symbol of Ike's passiveness and old age.

And so Kennedy kept the game in the closet. It wasn't until he was president for three months that Americans first realized that Kennedy was a golfer and a pretty good one. He had a photograph taken at a course in Palm Beach. And he was still so nervous about the symbolism of playing golf and people reminded of Ike that he stood on the first tee without a club in his hands. He just stood next to his father who had a driver and he wouldn't even be photographed with a club in his hands.

WOODRUFF: You have a whole section, Don Van Natta, about cheaters and golf. Two of them I have to ask you about. Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, with whom you actually played a round of golf.

VAN NATTA: Yes, I did.

Well, Nixon, of course, it shouldn't surprise anyone that he was in my "Hail to the Cheats" foursome. Nixon used to say, oh, that didn't count when he'd miss a three or four-foot putt.

And I did play with Bill Clinton. It kind of surprised me that he agreed to play with the because in 1999 in "The New York Times" I had accused him of bending the rules on the golf course. Yet he still agreed to play with me last August at a club near his home in Chappaqua. We had a great time over the 18 holes. He abided by the rules for about a hole and a half, and after that he let his guard down and played his usual round of 200 swings to card an 82.

WOODRUFF: Literally he took almost that many swings?

VAN NATTA: He did. He took 200 swings. The way he does it, I called them "Billigans" in the book. And the way he does it is he takes three shots off the fairway, two or three shots off the -- off around the area around the green, three shots off the tee, and he basically plays a sort of game of -- a shell game with his golf balls. And asks his playing partners, now which one is my first ball? And so they sort of become coconspirators with the president.

And I said, Mr. President, it's this good ball here closest to the green. That was your first shot. And more often than not it wasn't.

WOODRUFF: And finally, you look at the Bushes, father and son. What do we learn about, especially about our current president from the way he plays golf?

VAN NATTA: Our current president likes to go for the green. I mean he does that politically. He's known to be a bit of a risk taker and he's that way on the golf course.

He's not the kind of golfer who likes to lay up and play it safe. If he's got a 200 or 220 yard shot off the fairway to get to the green, he'll take a wood and try to put it as close to the hole as possible.

He and his dad love the game. But not so much to try to shoot low scores. It's more important they get around the course quickly. So the time elapsed is more important than the score.

And the needle each other quite a bit. You can really see their love for each other on the golf course. In recent years, George Bush Sr., The elder George Bush, his game has gone in the tank a little bit. He's shooting from the ladies' tees though he calls them the forward tees. And the current president, George W. Bush likes to needle his dad and say, don't trip over your skirt, Betsy, before you hit the next one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com