HMG Presidential Golf Challenge
Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton: political adversaries, golfing pals.
A member of the golf team at Harvard, John F. Kennedy was among the best golfers ever to occupy the White House.
Yesterday was President's Day! We recently were messaged by PLAAY Gamer Jack Christensen about a whether or not we'd ever made a presidential golf set for History Maker Golf. We'd thought about many times, but had never actually put one together--until now!
You can download the free presidential golf cards here.
Presidents have been playing golf for decades. Sixteen of the last nineteen US presidents have been golfers--in the past 100 years, only Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter have failed to hit the links while in office. Of course, while no president has demonstrated professional-level golf skills, some presidents were better golfers than others. John F. Kennedy was on the golf team at Harvard, and swung a pretty strong club. Franklin Roosevelt was a similarly solid golfer, until contracting polio at age 39. Gerald Ford was a far better golfer than he was portrayed on Saturday Night Live, he once hit a hole-in-one at the St. Jude Pro Am (1977). George W. Bush once shot a 77 at Augusta National. And the list goes on. Here's a ranking of presidents as golfers, with their estimated handicap in [ brackets ] and a bit of background information for each…
[ 6 ] DONALD TRUMP: By all accounts, straight golf and politics aside, Trump is the front-runner, with a strong swing and a penchant for play. As the owner of numerous courses, a previous career outside politics and being an avid golf enthusiast, he enjoys a natural advantage.
[ 6 ] JOHN F. KENNEDY: Watching JFK on the golf course, most were struck by the grace with which he played. But it was no fluke, he played on the golf team at Harvard and kept his game sharp in the succeeding years. A true all-around sports fan, he would doubtlessly have been a pro-am favorite for decades had his life not been cut short.
[ 10 ] GEORGE W. BUSH: Another president with a passion for sports (he once owned the Texas Rangers baseball team), Bush played golf frequently while in office, until 9-11 happened. In recent years, Bush has hosted a 36-hole charity event in the Dallas area that benefits wounded warriors from the armed forces and others who have been hurt in the fight against terror.
[ 11 ] GEORGE H.W. BUSH: The first President Bush was also a pretty good golfer, especially in his younger years. At one point, his handicap was at 11. He was best known for his rapid play, often knocking off shots without taking a practice swing. For eighteen holes, he usually clocked in at two hours--or less!
[ 12 ] DWIGHT EISENHOWER: Ike was the most active presidential golfer, playing an estimated 800 rounds of golf during his two terms in office. He was sometimes criticized for playing too MUCH golf, "when he should be running the country!" No stranger to the best courses in the country, he was a member of Augusta National--he often bolted Washington DC to escape to Augusta for a weekend of golf. As much as he played, though, he was never considered a great golfer (his putting was especially problematic), with a handicap in the mid-teens. A true competitor, he paired up with Arnold Palmer in '64 to win a charity pro-am event.
[ 12 ] RICHARD NIXON: As Eisenhower's vice-president, Nixon was obliged to take up golf himself. He taught himself to be a pretty fair player, believed to have played to a 12-handicap. Highlight of his golfing career was a hole in one at the Bel-Air Country Club in 1963, which was captured in a widely-published photograph. In 1978, after years of trying to break 80, he shot a 79--and never played golf again!
[ 12 ] GERALD FORD: Ford had the unfortunate knack for hitting spectators with his errant golf shots, and this was immortalized by Chevy Chase on Saturday Night Live. It was an inaccurate (though funny) portrayal of the president, who was actually a very good athlete (golf, swimming and football star in college) and a pretty good golfer, routinely shooting in the mid-80s.
[ 12 ] BILL CLINTON: One of the longest presidential hitters off the tee, Clinton is an enthusiastic golf fan and reportedly got his handicap into high single digits for awhile immediately after leaving office. Playing golf in Vail with Jack Nicklaus and former President Ford, Clinton out-drove Nicklaus on a par-five, reaching the green in two. "It was one of the happiest moments of my golfing life,” said Clinton.
[ 14 ] BARACK OBAMA: Played often while in office, usually two or three times a month. While some criticized, Obama found a defender in the president he succeeded, George Bush. Bush (rightly) insisted that golf was a great reliever of the stresses and pressure of being president. Not a great golfer, Obama sometimes told people that if he ever got good at golf, people would think he wasn't spending enough time on his day job.
[ 16 ] RONALD REAGAN: Reagan played golf, but not often or particularly well. Some say he had a good swing and could break triple-digits on occasion.
[ 18 ] LYNDON JOHNSON: Of all the presidents who played golf, none used it less for relaxation and more for politics than LBJ. He would employ a round of golf as a three to four hour lobbying session with fellow politicians, to either change a dissenting opinion, or solidify an ally. He was not a serious golfer, although he could play capably when he wanted to. One biographer wrote that if LBJ didn’t like a shot, he’d take another. And, another, until he was satisfied.
Other presidents who played golf include Warren Harding and Woodrow Wilson, who rarely broke triple digits, William Howard Taft, who was described as a "dreadful" golfer, and Calvin Coolidge, who was so disenchanted with the game that he abandoned his clubs at the White House when he left office.
For our HMG Presidential Challenge, we suggest pairing up golfers on a bi-partisan basis, Republican and Democrat, by era. For example, Barack Obama and George W Bush; Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush; Gerald Ford and Lyndon Johnson; John F. Kennedy and either Dwight Eisenhower or Richard Nixon.
While there are a number of appropriate formats, we'd opt for an alternating shot format, similar to what we used for the Champions for Charity stream a few months ago. That is, one member of a team tees off and the other member takes the next shot from wherever the ball landed. The team alternates shots until the hole is complete. Whichever golfer sank the putt, the other would tee off on the next hole. Each team completes nine holes, and the lowest score wins the challenge. Of course, you're free to enjoy the cards in any format you feel is best/most fun.
We recommend the Federal Blue Course (patterned after the Congressional Course in Bethesda, MD), which is sometimes frequented by the beltway crowd, but you're free to choose a different course. Whichever course you choose, we suggest reducing the course control number by one for each hole, ignoring the first white die number on any hole with a course control of two white dice or more, to represent the more golfer-friendly environment created for this charity event.
We also suggest making all golfers SUNNY for the round, and using the celebrity adjustments we created for our "Sam Snead Celebrity Golf '60" card set, where the celebrities have a different white die "6" result than the pros. Whenever you roll a white die "6" for a president when he tees off, check the white die "6" reading on his card. Instead of an automatic par and blue chip (or the option to attack the green), you'll give them the result printed on the card. The poorest golfers get the stiffest penalties.
Generally speaking, as deficient as they appear in print, the presidential cards are, honestly, a little better than they should be, based on their real-life handicaps. Remember that HMG is designed for championship-level golf, not amateur. The WORST you can be in HMG, even with every negative quality, is a low 80s golfer--that equates to a 10 or 12 handicap. Still, with the white die "6" adjustment, these cards should give a decent re-creation of presidential golf--on a GOOD day!
Just for fun (and since we had room on the page for a couple extra golfer cards), we’ve created cards for two movie presidents: Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Paxton) from “Independence Day,” and James Marshall (Harrison Ford) from “Air Force One.”