Putting Greens News & Blog

The White House Putting Green and Presidential Golf

Wednesday, September 20th, 2006

Early in his presidency, President Dwight Eisenhower had a putting green and small sand trap installed outside the Oval Office. The construction of the putting green and the fact that Eisenhower played over 800 rounds during his eight year administration seemed to do as much as any professional to bring the sport into the American consciousness, according New York Times reporter Don Van Natta Jr., author of First Off the Tee. As 14 of the last 17 commanders-in-chief played golf, with varying degrees of success, during their tenures in office, Van Natta believes that golf is “a way to really judge their character. They’re really themselves out on the golf course.”

William Howard Taft was the first presidential golfer, though not a good one. Blazing a trail for all presidential golf enthusiasts to follow, Taft once remarked, “I’ll be damned if I’m going to give up my golf game to see this fellow,” in regards to a scheduled meeting with a Chilean diplomat.

According to Van Natta, Calvin Coolidge was “the absolute worst” golfer. “He went out there dressed as if he was going to a dinner party. On the first tee, people didn’t know whether he was going to make a toast or hit a golf ball.” Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand, played almost every day. Van Natta says, “He played in the snow…with golf balls painted red by the Secret Service men, but never got good despite all that practice.”

Most interestingly, John F. Kennedy was the best presidential golfer, though he continually tried to conceal his playing. Presumably, Kennedy didn’t want to be seen golfing because “he wanted to contrast with Eisenhower’s image of golfing his way through the presidency.” Van Natta says,

JFK and his aides made a lot of hay out of Ike’s golf playing. They called him the Duffer in Chief…They kept JFK’s game in the closet. In fact, Americans didn’t really realize JFK loved golf until several months after he was in office. They let the cat out of the bag only because there were all these rumors about JFK and other extracurricular activities. He was sneaking off doing other things and [spokesman] Pierre Salinger had to tell people, ‘No, no, no. He’s playing golf.’ That was better than the alternative.

More recently, Bill Clinton came to be known for his excessive use of mulligans. When Van Natta played with the president, he claims that “it took him about 200 swings to score an 82.” Clinton, however, was responsible for the construction of a new putting green on the south grounds of the White House in 1996.

George W. Bush and his father play what Van Natta calls “aerobic golf.” Unlike President Clinton, “who will take six hours to get through 18 holes with no one in front of him, the Bushes want to get off the course as quickly as possible. The score doesn’t matter. It’s the time elapsed that matters the most to the Bushes.”