Golf And The American President

"What could be more complimentary to the great game of golf than to know how much it has intertwined the recreational lives of so many of our nation's presidents and provided them with occasional moments of relaxation and enjoyment amid the overwhelming demands of that highest of offices." - Arnold Palmer

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The tradition of presidential golf may be traced back to 1877, when Ulysses S. Grant became the first president known to have attempted to play the sport - "attempt" being the operative word. Taking club in hand for the very first time during a visit to Great Britain, he took a mighty swipe but missed the ball by a full 6 inches. Making a more careful estimate of the club's length, he swung a second time, this time striking the ground a full foot behind the ball. After a few more failed attempts, he handed the club back to his caddie, remarking, "I have always understood the game of golf was good outdoor exercise and especially for the arms. I fail, however, to see what use there is for a ball in the game."

President William Taft typically played the game with a fierce determination. (USGA Museum)

The first sitting president to actually succeed in his attempt to play the game was William McKinley, the nation's 25th president. It was during a summer vacation at Bluff Point, N. Y., along the shores of Lake Champlain, that McKinley played his first rounds at the urging of his vice-president, Garrett Hobart. Although McKinley would succeed where Grant failed, contemporary sources suggest he succeeded far too often, recording triple-digit scores well over 200 before giving up the game in favor of the shade of a stately oak tree and a good book.

But by all accounts the most passionate presidential golfer was William Howard Taft, who was elected to office 100 years ago next month. Taft had taken up the game some 14 years before the election, introduced to the sport by his younger brother Harry, who as a member of St. Andrew's Golf Club in Yonkers, N.Y., was among the early pioneers of American golf. In the summer of 1894, while vacationing north of the border at Murray Bay in Quebec, Harry first persuaded "Will" to try his hand at the game. He took instantly to the sport, spending the rest of the summer working to sharpen his skills.

Prior to his election, Taft had served as the first president of the Cincinnati Country Club, among the earliest private clubs in Ohio. But he resolutely believed that the game should be equally accessible to Americans from all walks of life, as it had been for centuries in Scotland. In an era when private clubs were the norm, he was one of the first to assert that every community throughout the country should have its own public course.

His love for golf did not abate during his years in office (1909-1913). Rather, he remained devoted to the game in a singular fashion, so much so that he played almost every afternoon during long stretches of his presidency. His favorite retreat from the pressures of Washington was the links at the Chevy Chase Club in suburban Maryland. On vacation, he would travel north to Beverly, Mass., where his family owned a summer home and where he could golf at the Myopia Hunt Club, which was regarded at the time among the very best courses in the nation.

Taft supporters during the 1908 presidential campaign adopted the character 'Billy Possum' as a representation of their candidate. This child's cup is a rare piece of campaign memorabilia. (USGA Museum)

Weighing in at well over 300 pounds, Taft extolled the game as world-class exercise. "As every man knows who has played the game," he once said, "it rejuvenates and stretches the span of life." Indeed, Taft's private concerns about his ballooning weight inspired him to play more golf as his time in office advanced. "Golf is a game that leads you to walk without realizing you are walking," Taft once explained. "When you play a game of 18 holes and walk four or five miles, there is only a pleasant feeling of fatigue when you get through." But despite his best efforts, he rarely escaped the wit of contemporary satirists. As one oft-told joke of the day noted, "If he put a golf ball where he could hit it, he couldn't see it. And if he put the golf ball where he could see it, he couldn't hit it."

And what of the game of the self-described "bumble-puppy" golfer? It was reported in the newspapers of the day that Taft regularly carded scores around 100, occasionally dipping into the low 90s. His stance was rather erect, he kept his head still, and he swung well and straight through the ball. He consistently drove the ball 175 yards off the tee, on occasion as much as 200 yards, and rarely sliced. "His stroke is not Scotland's bonnie swing," one contemporary scribe noted. "It is the swing of the baseball bat. The President is a good example of a ballplayer, who, having taken to golf, plays his golf in a baseball way; just because that way comes easily and feels natural .… And when he has given the ball its smite and sent it sailing on its way, he is done. He makes no after poses." One occasional partner of the president was Walter J. Travis, the three-time U.S. Amateur champion, who once suggested that the president was perhaps a bit too modest in describing his bumbling game: "I know personally scores and scores of golfers who would almost be tempted to sell their immortal souls could they but put up such a good game as he does."

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The USGA Museum is home to one of the most extensive collections of presidential golf memorabilia in the world. Often cited by visitors among their most favorite artifacts displayed in the Museum's Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History, this unique collection began in 1939 with the donation of President Taft's "fishing-pole" driver, so named because of its extraordinary length. Since then, the collection has grown to comprise more than 40 artifacts from every U.S. president who has played the game. In addition to golf clubs and golf balls, the presidential collection includes letters, political cartoons, photographs, and an original oil painting by President Eisenhower of the 16 ^th Hole at Augusta National. One of the most recent additions to the collection of presidential memorabilia came in July, 2003, when an otherwise unassuming package wrapped in brown paper arrived at the Museum, bearing the simple return address "The White House, Washington." The box contained a special gift from George W. Bush to the USGA Museum - a Cleveland Classics Ben Crenshaw putter much used and cherished by our nation's 43 ^rd president. Accompanying the putter was a letter from the Oval Office, in which Bush noted that "the enclosed putter has brought me both great joy and great frustration over the years, and I am pleased to share it with my fellow golfers."

Dr. Rand Jerris has served as Director of the USGA Museum since 2002. The Museum celebrates the history of golf in the United States in the new Arnold Palmer Center for Golf History.

Suggestions For Further Reading

Two outstanding books on the history of presidential golf provided the source material for most of the content of this story: Shepherd Campbell and Peter Landau, Presidential Lies: The Illustrated History of White House Golf, 1996; and Don Van Natta, First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush, 2003.