Former President Bush To Receive 2008 USGA Bob Jones Award

December 18, 2007
E-mail address: mediarelations@usga.org

Far Hills, N.J. — George H.W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, has been chosen to receive the United States Golf Association's 2008 Bob Jones Award.

Presented annually since 1955, the USGA's highest honor is given in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. The Award seeks to recognize a person who emulates Jones' spirit, his personal qualities and his attitude toward the game and its players.

The Award will be presented to Bush on Feb. 9 at the USGA's Annual Meeting in Houston.

President Bush poses with 1987 USA Walker Cup captain Fred Ridley (right) and USGA President William Williams at the White House. (USGA Photo Archives)

"I'm very flattered to receive this award," said the former President. "Golf has meant a lot to me. It means friendship, integrity and character. I grew up in a family that was lucky enough to have golf at the heart of it for a while. My father was a scratch player and my mother also was a good golfer. It's a very special game."

Bush, 83, has had a lifelong passion for the game of golf, which he began playing as a youngster during his family's summers in Maine. He improved to where he was a mid-80s player in his 20s while in the oil business in West Texas.

He is undeniably linked to golf and the USGA through his grandfather, 1920 USGA President George Herbert Walker, whose leadership and donation of a trophy inspired the Walker Cup Matches, a biennial amateur competition between players from Great Britain & Ireland and the United States.

Bush's father, Prescott Bush, president of the USGA in 1935, was instrumental in establishing the USGA Museum and Archives.

"I played with my dad quite a bit, especially right after World War II when we got a little older," said Bush. "He was still leagues above me and my brothers, but he always wanted to get out with his boys and play.

"I have great pride in my father and his contribution to the game. My grandfather and father instilled in us the character of the game, the respect for the traditions of the game and playing by the rules, and it stuck."

Late in his life, Jones credited Bush's grandfather with helping him get his hot temper on the golf course under control. During his presidency, Walker admonished the teenager during a USGA championship, but then encouraged him by telling him he had the talent to be one of the game's greats if he learned more self-control.

A tribute to his interest in the sport, Bush is only the second non-golfer or golf administrator to be chosen for the Award. In 1978, the USGA recognized entertainers Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.

"President Bush, along with his father and grandfather, has long been part of the extended USGA family," said Cameron Jay Rains, USGA Bob Jones Award committee chairman. "His passion for the game, as well as the core values and principles that underscored his leadership of our country and guide his everyday life, are emblematic of the characteristics that the Bob Jones Award seeks to identify. The game and those who play it will benefit greatly in the years ahead from President Bush's leadership."

Since retiring from political office, Bush has lent his name to initiatives to help make the sport more popular. Since 1997, Bush has served as honorary chairman of The First Tee program, an initiative of the World Golf Foundation to which the USGA is the biggest contributor. He also is a long-time USGA Member, honorary chair of the USGA Museum and Archives President's Council and an honorary member of The Professional Golfers' Association of America.

"I've been lucky enough to play golf with him many times," said CBS sports announcer Jim Nantz. "He conducts himself on the golf course in the same manner he conducts his life, with honor and integrity. I might also add that he's the world's best role model for a faster pace of play."

A native of Milton, Mass., Bush was 18 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942 and became a U.S. Navy bomber pilot. He flew 58 combat missions in World War II, including one in which he was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire, and earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery.

Following the war, Bush attended Yale University, where he was captain of the baseball team and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors. He then worked in the oil industry in West Texas before following the example of his father and entering public service. In 1967, he began the first of two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Texas' Seventh District.

Bush was then appointed to a series of high-level positions: ambassador to the United Nations in 1971; chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1973; chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China in 1974; and director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976.

In 1980, Bush campaigned for the Republican nomination for U.S. president. He lost but was chosen as a running mate by party nominee Ronald Reagan. As vice president, Bush had responsibility in several domestic areas, including Federal deregulation and anti-drug programs, and visited scores of foreign countries. Bush served as vice president for the next eight years. In 1988 he was elected president, serving until 1993.

As President, he fostered a close working relationship with Mikhail Gorbachev, which resulted in the end of the Cold War and eventually the reunification of Germany. In Panama, after President Manuel Noriega declared a "state of war" with the United States, Bush ordered Operation Just Cause, which ended with the arrest of Noriega and his eventual imprisonment. And when Iraq invaded Kuwait, Bush put together an international coalition for Operation Desert Storm, which defeated Saddam Hussein's army and liberated Kuwait.

On the domestic front, he signed several pieces of landmark legislation, including the Clean Air Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Following an unsuccessful bid for re-election, Bush authored two books - A World Transformed (1998, with Gen. Brent Scowcroft), on foreign policy during his administration, and All The Best (1999), a collection of letters written throughout his life. Bush also has been one of the nation's foremost fundraisers for charitable organizations, visiting 56 countries and nearly all 50 U.S. states.

The former President leads humanitarian causes at home and abroad. He and former President Bill Clinton headed up fund-raising for the victims of the 2004 tsunami in South Asia, and less than a year later, for the victims of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast of the United States. Bush also was named the United Nations special envoy for the Pakistan Earthquake Disaster.

He has raised tens of millions of dollars for the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and along with Mrs. Bush, he serves as Honorary Chair of the cancer organization, C-Change. He is the honorary chair of the Points of Light Foundation, and he has served as chair of the Eisenhower Exchange Fellowship program and the National Constitution Center.