Golf in the White House :: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

With Election Day right around the corner it seemed fitting to see what close ties there are between the past presidents and the game of golf. Surprisingly the game of golf is extremely present in the lives of the past presidents. In fact out of the last 17 US presidents, 14 of them actually played the game. Now by no means could these presidents be considered pros however its surprising to see how many of them actually played the game.

The first president to ever pick up a golf club was Ulysses S. Grant back in 1877. He put the club down quickly after he completely whiffed the ball the first time and failed to make contact again, hitting the ground well before the ball on his downswing in his second attempt. It could be argued that although Grant was the first to try the game, President William McKinley was the first to actually complete a round. Rumor has it the rounds that he completed were no where near par and even scored in the triple digits with scores in the 200’s.

The best president golfer award definitely goes to William Howard Taft who started playing the game due to his brother influence and fell in love with it. He even served as president of a private country club in Ohio and pushed for public courses to be accessible in every community. He played almost every afternoon when he was in office and while he loved the game he also loved that it kept him active. Before there were golf carts, golfers would walk an average of 4-5 miles every round. Taft, weighing in at around 300 pounds said "golf is a game that leads you to walk without realizing you are walking." All of those rounds paid off for Taft who consistently shot in the 90’s and 100’s making him by far the best president golfer out of this group. While “who is the better golfer?” isn’t a make or break decision in this year’s election, it is interesting to think about who would hold their own on the golf course.