In perusing last week’s issue of the Post, which featured our coverage of the 2024 Solheim Cup, I was particularly struck by a photograph of a busy first tee at the site of the match, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia, some 30 miles southwest from Washington, D.C.
It was not a player who caught my eye (though I was surprised to see the usually dour Nelly Korda beaming). Rather, my eyes were drawn to the man standing to her right, a slender, white-haired fellow with his left arm in the air, his hand in a fist. It was Barack Obama, and I was glad to see the former President and RTJ member cheering on competitors. In my view, any publicity for golf is good. And there can be few better advocates for the sport in which I have long made a living than a person with such visibility, stature and popularity.
But seeing that shot reminded me of how politics have often made it hard for presidents to display their enthusiasm for golf, lest they be accused of not working hard enough or being elitist and out-of-touch by indulging in what is sometimes described as the “sport of kings.” And their handlers frequently go to great lengths to lower their bosses’ profiles as golfers, even though the game is an innocuous activity that provides a good way for leaders of the free world to decompress.
It was a problem for Obama while he was in office as well as for other presidents going as far back as the 1950s and Dwight Eisenhower, who took flak for recording some 800 rounds during his two terms in office. Ike even had to listen to his eventual successor, John F. Kennedy, call him the “duffer in chief.”
The situation only worsened as media coverage – and political correctness – grew. Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush were avid golfers and as such often criticized for teeing it up. They shared the stage for the opening ceremony and as first-day spectators at the 2005 Presidents Cup at RTJ. George W. Bush all but gave up the game after America invaded Iraq, the thinking being he should not be playing golf while U.S. troops were dying in the Arabian Desert. And as much as Joe Biden is said to have fancied a game, I have never seen more than one or two photos of him with his sticks as vice president or president of the United States.
As a man who does not seem overly concerned about placating critics – and who also happens to own a bunch of golf courses – Donald Trump seems content to maintain a very high profile as a golfer. And I think that is a good thing. So is Obama’s presence at RTJ, and my hope is that in the years ahead, the voting public can approach golf in a more sensible way.
Let our presidents play.
John Steinbreder
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Top: Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower flashes his famous smile as he holds the ball which he hit for a hole-in-one in 1968 on the 104-yard par-3 13th hole at Seven Lakes Country Club in Palm Springs, California. It was Eisenhower's only ace.
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