phrase: “The only thing we have to fear, is fear of the golf gods themselves.” • And fi nally, let’s be honest here.
Some of us are never going to like the President, no matter what he does. Right-wingers are going to hate the liberal guy. Left-wingers are going to hate the conservative guy. So, what bet- ter way to get your disliked Prez out of the offi ce than to tell him to play golf? If he gets stuck at a particularly busy muni, maybe he gets locked into a six- hour round. And from your perspec- tive, that’s six hours that the guy you hate isn’t making any decisions. You are cheating time! And you’re six hours closer to the next Election Day, when you can vote the rascal out. Brian Murphy hosts the KNBR
morning show “Murph and Mack” and was the San Francisco Chronicle’s golf writer from 2001-2004.
NO
History suggests making this argument is akin to carding eagle on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open... in a driving rainstorm...
after your tee shot lands in gnarly, ankle-high
rough...to advance to the Monday playoff against Tiger Woods in his old, menacing, automatic days. Or put another way: Good luck, pal.
Fifteen of the past 18 U.S. presidents have played golf, including current of- fi ce holder Barack Obama. The game is a serious and longtime presidential passion, from Dwight Eisenhower’s prized putting green and Gerald Ford’s dangerously wayward drives to Bill Clinton’s mulligans and Obama’s homemade, left-handed swing. Good for them. Nice to know the leader of the free world historically rec- ognizes the value of golf and embraces its wondrous powers. Just not while in offi ce, OK? Maybe the answer is to resur-
rect Eisenhower’s putting green and discreetly sneak away for 15 minutes of practice every now and then. Or, in Obama’s case, join the First Daugh-
ters on an occasional miniature-golf outing. Or hook up the Wii in a quiet corner of the White House and take simulated swings in blissful solitude. (Hey, my 10-year-old son recently “shot” 54 at TPC Sawgrass, sinking preposterous putts from every conceivable distance and angle. Wii might make you feel better about your game, Mr. President.) The problem is mostly about per-
ception and excess. At the risk of taking this friendly debate down a treacherous political path, I didn’t agree with much of what George W. Bush did in his eight years in Washington. But when Bush publicly declared he would give up golf while in offi ce because he didn’t think it was appropriate to play while troops fought in Iraq, he made perfect sense. His sacrifi ce was nothing com- pared to that of the men and women he ordered into combat. And now, in his post-Presidential
days, Bush has re-acquainted himself with the game. Maybe he’s not so bad after all.
Then there’s the time. Bush’s father,
our 41st President, was famous for zooming around courses with Rory Sabbatini-like dispatch. But, realisti- cally, most people do not zip through 18 holes at a Bush/Sabbatini pace. The game simply takes a long time to play—that’s one of its few enduring, hard-to-avoid drawbacks. And while we all want our Presi- dents to unwind once in a while, maybe there are better ways, given their abun- dant responsibilities, to spend four-plus hours. Maybe there are similarly enjoy- able hobbies requiring less time (like, say, pickup basketball). Still, this whole issue clearly would
not have surfaced anew in 2010 if Obama played golf once every three months, or even once a month. He left himself open to criticism because he reportedly played more than 40 times in his fi rst 18 months in offi ce. No offense, but should the Presi-
dent of the United States really have the time to play more golf than most of the people he serves? More than the golf writer at a major metropolitan
newspaper? (Sorry, selfi sh aside.) Obama is merely extending the
history, we know. Woodrow Wil- son logged more than 1,000 rounds during his time in offi ce (1913-21), often waking at 5 a.m. to hit the links. Eisenhower, who helped popularize the game in the U.S. in the 1950s, is said to have played more than 800 rounds during his time as President. He took so many trips to Augusta National that the Eisenhower Cabin and Eisenhower Tree (on No. 17) remain two notable landmarks to this day. This is the excess problem. Presi-
dents, like the rest of us, struggle to make golf merely a casual pursuit. They, like the rest of us, become consumed by knocking the little white ball into the hole. They, unlike the rest of us, have the power and means to squeeze many rounds into a busy schedule. Maybe there’s a lesson in the old
story about John F. Kennedy playing Cypress Point in July 1960, during the campaign. Kennedy watched his tee shot on No. 15—the short, oceanfront par-3 preceding its famous big brother (No. 16)—soar toward the fl agstick, land on the green and roll toward the hole. Paul B. Fay Jr., playing alongside
Kennedy, shouted for the ball to go in the hole. Kennedy, horrifi ed, implored the ball to stay out. It obeyed, stopping six inches short of an ace. Kennedy exhaled and reportedly told Fay, “If that ball had gone into the hole, in less than an hour the word would be out to the nation that another golfer was trying to get into the White House.” Kennedy did not want to subject himself to the kind of criticism his pre- decessor (Eisenhower) endured. At least he understood the hazards of taking his golf habit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Ron Kroichick covers golf for the San
Francisco Chronicle. FALL 2010 / NCGA.ORG / 23
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