Duffer's Holiday

The new presidential plane Columbine III was ready, after weeks of test flights, to carry Ike and his party to a Thanksgiving holiday* at the Augusta, Ga. National Golf Club. Before takeoff, Mamie Eisenhower christened the new Super-Constellation in a brief ceremony at Washington's National Airport, using, instead of the traditional champagne, a soda bottle full of water from Colorado's north fork of the South Platte River (a favorite presidential trout stream).

Mamie Fidgeted. The new plane, 19 ft. 9 in. longer than the Columbine II, is decorated in various shades of green, and comfortably but not luxuriously furnished. The major improvement is a radio-Teletype room just behind the flight deck, complete with a complicated National Security Agency decoding machine. Ike, who could only receive brief voice messages in the old Columbine, can now receive Teletype messages of any length during flight, including top-secret material. Another important improvement is a more efficient cabin pressurization system, to relieve the strain on Mamie's heart, slightly damaged by rheumatic fever in childhood.

Thunderheads and high winds made for a bumpy trip south, and Mamie peered anxiously out of her window from time to time. The President, however, chatted quietly with his guest, British Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, and a group of golfing companions.* It was cloudy and cold when the Columbine III landed in Augusta, but Thanksgiving morning dawned clear and warm.

Ike was up at 7 a.m., spent an hour and a half in his office and then went to the practice tee with Pro Ed Dudley. The President had played only once since he left Denver Oct. 15, and his game had deteriorated. When his foursome teed off, Ike's drives were often wild, his putting sour. He was disgusted and threatened, like any Sunday duffer, to abandon the game forever. Montgomery used to be a golfer, but he injured a vertebra in a plane accident after the war, and has given up the sport. He followed the foursome in an electric scooter.

Ike Carved. At 8 p.m. that evening, Ike, Mamie and the party gathered in the candlelit trophy room of the main clubhouse for Thanksgiving dinner. The 43-lb. turkey, "Kentucky Colonel," presented to Ike by a poultry association the week before, was placed on a table decorated with cornucopias spilling fruit. Ike did the carving, snitched a slice of meat for himself as he passed the plates around.

Next day Montgomery returned to Washington. Ike decided to stay in Augusta until this week, stubbornly returned to the golf course for another go at lowering his score. The decision meant he had to skip the Army-Navy football game, but he did forget golf long enough to watch the game on TV.

*Ike has been absent from the White House for 64 of the 96 days since Congress adjourned last August. *Ellis Slater, president of Frankfort Distillers Corp.; George Allen, Washington lawyer and friend of Presidents; Colonel Thomas Belshe (ret.), former Army pal; and their wives.

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