Alan Tripp Transcript

January 5, 2008

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome to “Sound Authors.” The whole country is poised at the edge of their seats this week–it’s January 4th–in anticipation of this election’s first primaries, both Democratic and Republican. In honor of that, we’ve got some interesting guests on the show today.Our first guest is Alan Tripp, he’ll tell us all about golf and the White House, and how the newest candidates meet the golf test. Paul Davis will speak to us about politics and religion. Maureen Webb will speak to us about the post-9/11 security debate, and musical guest Joe Crookston will be on the show at the end. Of course, all of them will hopefully weigh in a little bit on the upcoming primaries.My first guest is Alan Tripp, welcome to the show.

Alan Tripp: Thank you very much. It’s good to be with you.

Dr. Kent: Your book is called “In the Hole! Poetic Justice for Golf Fanatics”–a correction: it’s a book and a CD-ROM, is that correct?

Alan: Yes, it’s both, because it turns out with both prose and poetry, it sounded better than just reading it on a white old page.

Dr. Kent: So tell me about “Poetic Justice.” How do golf fanatics get their justice?

Alan: Well, you see, I love the game of golf, as many people do, but I also realize that it’s a game that reveals your character, that reveals how you feel emotionally. Naturally in writing about it I took in all the things that happened to people, including presidents. Just to give you a clue about what’s in this book and CD, let me give you one of the straight things that starts up front. This is called “The Hole in One Blues.” Listen to this.Of all the things I’ve never done,And wanted most, a hole in one.One day up on a long par three.I hit it far as I could see.My partner yelled, “Go, go ball. Roll.You’re on the green, you’re in the hole.”Then, down the fairway we did run.To see what my three iron had done.There it lay, to my chagrin,My ball, three inches from the pin.”Oh, well.” I thought. “Be of good cheer.If it went in I’d buy the beer.”And after all the fuss is done,No one recalls your hole in one.So now I want an ace no more.Although I know t’would help my score.I just describe with pure delight.My hole in one that wasn’t quite.So you see that, that’s the kind of thing that I felt about golf as an emotional game.

Dr. Kent: Bravo! This is a collection filled with all of this?

Alan: Yes, it filled with that. It’s filled with stories about people, stories about the two Babes who played golf: Babe Ruth and Babe Didrikson. You know, those are old names, but Babe Ruth, of course, was a home run king, and Babe Didrikson was probably the best female athlete that ever lived.

Dr. Kent: What is your personal background in golf? Are you a good athlete?

Alan: My personal background is just love the game. My life’s work is writing and occasionally doing some business in order to make a living, and make a few bucks here and there, and to have the pleasure of being able to do this kind of book and CD. [laughs]

Dr. Kent: So let’s cut to the chase, I’m really excited to hear what your take is on the candidates here.

Alan: Right.

Dr. Kent: You say that you know their golfing ability?

Alan: Yes, I can tell you a lot. First of all I want to tell you, if you want to get elected president, you better play golf. Fourteen out of the 17 presidents, up to and including George W. Bush there, played golf. That tells you that 14 out of the 17 presidents–from William Howard Taft on down to Bush–if they all played golf, if you want to get elected it’s not too bad a thing to have in your bag as a talent.But looking at some of them, you see another very interesting thing, and you can judge those guys that are running now–I’ll tell you some details about what they do in golf–if you see that those presidents played politics and played the job of president very much like they behaved on the golf course. Isn’t that interesting?

Dr. Kent: It certainly is.

Alan: Guys who played it straight, who were good gentlemen on the golf course, I assure you they were the same way in the White House, and if they hedged it a little bit, well maybe they fudged in the Whitehouse, too. Let me give you some evidence, all right Doc?

Dr. Kent: Sounds good.

Alan: Here we go, here’s a little rhyme on Bill Clinton.The man was renowned for moving his balls.When tree or bush stood in his way.And he was quite skilled at improving his lies,And charming his nay Sayers away.Kind of sums up the man, doesn’t it?

Dr. Kent: [laughs] Yes.

Alan: But let’s go to George W. Bush. By the way, I’ll tell you an interesting thing about George W. The man has a terrible slice, and he won’t take advice from anybody on how to cure it.

Dr. Kent: [laughs]

Alan: Now does that suggest to you that maybe that’s a parallelism to how he behaves as president?

Dr. Kent: It could be.

Alan: All right, here’s George W’s rhyme.George Bush plays the game.Not as good as his dad,And the reason for this is quite clear and quite sad.The bunkers are scary, you quite understand?Elsewhere in the world he bogged down in the sand.[laughter]

Dr. Kent: In the sand indeed.

Alan: In the sand. I have written rhymes and commentary about a good number of these presidents. But I’ll tell you one last thing about why the character is the same, and then we’ll get on to the candidates. I want you to think about Gerry Ford. It’s a very interesting thing to think about. He was out on the green one day putting. He was playing with Gordy Howe, the great hockey player, and Howe said to him, “Well I’ll give you that putt.” Oh, it was very short, maybe two feet.And Gerry Ford said to him, “No, I can’t take that putt.”He says, “Oh go on. I won’t ever remember that.”And Ford pointed to all the reporters and the photographers around the green, and said, “You’ll forget it, you won’t bring it up, but if I do that, these guys, these reporters will never let me forget it!”

Dr. Kent: [laughing]

Alan: So, this is the kind of straight arrow that Gerry Ford was.

Dr. Kent: Right.

Alan: All right? Well do you want to turn over to these candidates out there now?

Dr. Kent: I’m excited.

Alan: All right. First of all, our country’s in a lot of trouble, because out of all these candidates who are up there now, there are only about four of them who play golf.

Dr. Kent: You’re kidding.

Alan: Now is that scary?

Dr. Kent: [laughing]

Alan: I mean, you know, when you think of the history of this thing, but let me tell you about the ones who do play. First of all everybody wants to know, what about a guy like Giuliani? And the answer is he’s a very good golfer.

Dr. Kent: Hm.

Alan: Strange story. How come? Well, when he grew up, he grew up out in Brooklyn, and then his folks moved to Long Island. He had to go to school, but the shortcut to school was to walk across a golf course. So, as he walked across, he found an old nine iron, and he used to hit it, and hit it, and hit it, to go across the golf course to school and back home. That’s how he taught himself to play. He does the same thing whenever he has a chance to do anything: he picks up a club and hits away at it.He taught his two sons to play golf. And one of them, Andrew, just got a full scholarship at Duke University as a golfer. So, it runs in the family. Now you don’t have to like Giuliani, but you do know that he qualifies on golf.Let’s move over to the Democratic side. Who would you think plays golf among the Democratic candidates?

Dr. Kent: I can cheat, because I have your, ah–

Alan: You got a cheat sheet, all right.

Dr. Kent: I have a cheat sheet [laughing].

Alan: Well, the answer is Obama. Obama’s a very nice golfer. And I’ll tell you a little story about him which tells you his character. When he was thinking, just about a year ago, he was considering whether or not to run, he went back to Hawaii where he grew up. And for four days in a row he played golf, played golf with the president of the bank, his old buddies, with this one and that one. Never once did he say a word about whether he was going to run, but he was thinking about it all the time. At the end of those four days, he announced he’d made up his mind.So here’s a guy that’s very thoughtful, very quiet about it, that works his way through it. Now, would he be this kind of president? Probably. Would he be a good president? That’s up to you. That’s up to the voters.Dr. Kent. Right.

Alan: Would you like to know about Hillary?

Dr. Kent: [laughing] Absolutely.

Alan: Excellent. You know, people think Hillary is not an athlete and doesn’t play golf, but it isn’t true. Hillary used to sneak out of the White House with Bill, but only on rainy days, when Bill couldn’t get someone else I guess. And they would play a little golf, because she can play, not great, but she can play the game. But she would never let anybody know. Now that’s a little worrisome. Think about it. What was she hiding, the fact that her score wasn’t so good? Come on. OK? I’m being a little political, but these are all open facts that I got out of some deep research.Let’s get back to the Republicans again. The only other decent golfer among the Republicans is Duncan Hunter. Where’s Duncan Hunter from?

Dr. Kent: I’m not sure.

Alan: He’s from San Diego, man.

Dr. Kent: Ah, yes.

Alan: Now I’ve lived in San Diego half the year for many years. And anybody who’s from San Diego and is that kind of guy can’t be all bad. But what I found out about Hunter is that everyone who plays with him loves him. He is a gentleman. He calls it as it is. He plays it as it is. That doesn’t mean that I think you should vote for him, and I don’t know if he’ll ever get nominated. But it does mean that you know what to expect, because the way a guy plays golf, is the way he’ll behave in office.

Dr. Kent: Well, this has been absolutely enlightening. “In the Hole! Poetic Justice for Golf Fanatics” is available from intheholegolf.com, again intheholegolf.com. I don’t think any of these juicy secrets are in there, are they?