Presidential Golf

The president plays too much golf.

Newspaper editors have been saying that for slightly over a hundred years.  About the time I was just learning to read, papers were saying that about President Eisenhower.  Ike did indeed play a lot of golf.  I can remember reading a bumper sticker from the 1956 election, "Ben Hogan For President. If We're Going To Have A Golfer—Let's Have A Good One!”

This was patently unfair to Eisenhower' since he did not start the tradition of presidential golf.  While the founding fathers weren’t golfers, they might have been if courses had been available.  Washington, John Adams, and Jefferson were enthusiastic collectors of marbles, so, who knows?—they might have enjoyed playing with bigger balls, too.

Most of the history books record that William Howard Taft was the first president to play golf, but this is a mistake.  President William McKinley played as early as 1897, but since the average voter didn’t trust a foreign game (it was a nativistic era) and also couldn’t afford to play, McKinley kept the news to himself. 

From various letters, we know that McKinley’s successor, Theodore Roosevelt, played golf several times in his life, but no one knows if he ever sneaked out of the White House to play a round or two.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, Teddy Roosevelt understood how to use photographs to manipulate the press.  He was extremely careful about what the photos would show and how his image would be presented to the public.  It would take an entire evening to browse through the countless photos of Teddy shooting, fishing, riding horses, hunting, or making impassioned speeches.  There is not one single photo, however, that shows him playing golf.

Theodore Roosevelt thought that golf was a game for the wealthy, and he thought the voters would be turned off by a foreign game reserved for the elite.  Aware that the Democrats were trying to disparage the Republican Party as the party of the rich, he even warned his Republican successor against being seen playing golf.

It would seem incredible that anyone would care one way or the other about your playing golf, but I have received hundreds of letters protesting it.  I myself play tennis, but that game is a little more familiar; besides, you never saw a photograph of me playing tennis, I am careful about that; photographs of me on horseback, yes; tennis, no.  And golf is fatal.”  Theodore Roosevelt writing to William Howard Taft, 1908.

Taft, however, would not change his mind.  “Golf is in the interest of good health and good manners.”  More importantly, he liked the game.   He specifically endorsed the game as suitable for middle aged and older men.  (Now that I have retired, I intend to follow his advice—it is my patriotic duty.)

Note.  In hindsight, I have to admit that perhaps Teddy had a point about Scotland.  There is something weird about people who invent golf, perfect whiskey, wear kilts, and like bagpipe music.

The way presidents played the game tells us a lot about the character of the men.  Taft never really wanted to be president—he was far more comfortable in a court room.  He played a game strictly by the rules, and would never allow other players to give him an easy putt.  He once took 12 strokes to exit a sand trap, and recorded every stroke.  He still holds something of a record at the Kebo Valley Golf Club—he took 27 strokes to clear a par five hole. 

Taft’s love of the law didn’t prevent him from celebrating when the new Connecticut Avenue bridge across the Potomac River finally opened.  This gave him a direct quick route to the Chevy Chase Country Club, saving enough time that the president frequently took afternoons off in order to enjoy a quick nine holes.

Taft wasn’t a great golfer (he had a 20 handicap), but he frequently played a round in the low 90’s despite his 300—pound weight.  Woodrow Wilson, was obsessed with the game, was athletically fit…and almost never broke a hundred. 

President Wilson played almost daily, racking up an astonishing 1200 rounds of golf while president.  He even played in the winter, painting his balls black or red so he could find them in the snow.  If the duties during the day prevented the president from slipping away from the White House, he equipped his caddy with a flashlight and played at night.  One such round of golf wasn’t finished until 5:00 in the morning! 

Wilson played for the fun of it, usually not bothering to keep score and he is the only president who regularly was accompanied by his wife.  Not only was Edith Wilson the first First Lady to play the game, she had met Woodrow on a golf course. 

Warren G. Harding preferred poker to golf, but he played a few rounds as President.  As far as can be determined, he was the first president who used to wager on his game.  This is not surprising when you consider that Harding once bet—and lost—all the White House china in a poker game.  Harding turned part of the White House lawn into an impromptu driving range after he trained his dog, Laddie Boy to retrieve balls.

When Calvin Coolidge became president in 1923, he played at golf, but while he enjoyed getting out of the White House for an afternoon, he wasn’t passionate about the sport.  When he left the White House, he kindly left his clubs behind as a gift to President Hoover.  The gesture was wasted, since Hoover, like Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter, never played the game while president.

President Eisenhower loved golf and played an average of 150 days a year, racking up a respectable 800 rounds while president.  When he could not get to the course, he practiced on a driving range he established in the White House Basement and he had Robert Trent Jones design and install a putting green on the White House Lawn.  There are pictures of Eisenhower walking through the White House holding a pitching wedge.  (Unlike Taft, Eisenhower always accepted courtesy putts!)

More than any previous president, it was Ike who popularized the sport of golf with the American public.  Ike played with professionals, and as his duties took him across the country, he found time to play on local courses.  The press loved it, publicized his game, and influenced thousands of young men to take up the sport.  Ike finally got tired of reporters asking about his game, and jokingly said that he was going to pass a law making it illegal to ask the president his golf score.

On the 17th hole at the Augusta National Golf Club, a loblolly pine was on the inside curve of a dogleg fairway.  Ike hit that tree so many times that he lobbied to have it removed, but the board of governors refused.  For over 50 years, the Eisenhower Tree bedeviled golfers—it was under that tree that Tiger Woods injured his knee and damaged his career.  When an ice storm in February 2014 destroyed the tree, the officials at the Dalmeny Golf Club in Scotland donated an acorn from a tree that Ike had planted in 1946 when the victorious general was given the freedom of the city.

John F. Kennedy loved the game, but faced something of a problem.  While campaigning, he had made frequent jokes about Ike playing so much golf.  JFK played a great game——his average was in the 80’s—but he occasionally played in the low 70’s despite a bad back.  Professionals who played with him said he had a beautiful swing.

President Johnson played regularly, and had an "unorthodox" game.  He loved the feel of a good shot, but had no interest in keeping score.  If it took 600 strokes to achieve what he wanted, this was just fine.  (And LBJ took politicians with him, negotiating legislation on the fairway).

Nixon played regularly until Watergate.  After the press began following his every move, an obviously paranoid president gave up the game, even removing the Eisenhower putting green.  From then on, he sought relaxation by bowling in the White House basement.

Gerald Ford was actually a good golfer—he even had a hole-in-one at the Memphis Golf Classic.  Unfortunately, during a game he sliced the ball, hitting a spectator.  The next time the president played, the crowd of spectators was enormous, almost guaranteeing that another spectator would be hit by a ball.  As television comics made jokes, the crowds continued to grow.  Ford’s frequent golf partner, Bob Hope, quipped that while the president had turned golf into a contact sport, he wasn’t afraid to play with Ford, since he had made sure that he and his caddie had the same blood type.

Ronald Reagan didn’t play often or very well, once admitting to a reporter that his best game just barely broke 100.  Despite not playing very often while president, he found pleasure and relaxation putting.  To the delight of the traveling press corps, Reagan frequently putted down the aisle of Air Force One.  If it is your plane, you can do what you want, after all!.

President Bush—both of them—were known for playing golf a little differently.  For them, it was aerobic golf, where the time required to go around the course was more important than the score.  Their average was about one hour and forty—five minutes for 18 holes.  (This is just about equal to  the time it takes me to play 9 holes and lose 3 balls). 

When President George Herbert Walker Bush (41) hit a ball a little short, he'd usually yell, “Power Outage!”  And once, while hitting a ball a little long, he yelled, “Oh golly darn!  Get up there!”  Anyone who has played golf with me can testify that is not the way every Texan addresses his ball.  I firmly believe that golf balls and bowling balls are steered with profanity.

Bill Clinton made up his own rules.  While most golfers will take an occasional Mulligan (an illegal second chance to hit a ball properly), President Clinton was famous for taking ‘Billigans’ as often as necessary.  The Secret Service would clear the course ahead of the president, who frequently took six hours and 200 swings to shoot in the 80’s.

President Clinton rebuilt the Eisenhower putting green with the help of Robert Trent Jones, Jr., the son of the designer of the first putting green.  The location of the green has moved a little due to needs of the presidential helicopters.  It is now located under the Hoover Tree.

President Obama played an estimated 320 rounds of golf while president, which puts him in fourth place for the most presidential games—behind Wilson (1200 games), Eisenhower (800), and Clinton (400).  George W. Bush (43) played just 24 games, with the last in 2003.  He quit the game for the rest of his presidency, believing it inappropriate while the nation was at war. 

No one can estimate how many games the current president will play, but I can tell you that Donald Trump owns 17 golf courses.  If he plays each of them four times a year during his term, he will move into fifth place.

We skipped a president—did you notice?  Franklin Delano Roosevelt played no golf while president due to his polio.  FDR’s father built him a private six—hole course when the future president was only six years old.  At the turn of the century, using primitive equipment, he shot in the low 80’s. 

Of all the presidents, President Roosevelt probably had the greatest impact on the game of golf.  While president, through the Works Project Administration, he built over 350 public courses, extending the game to the average American.