George H.W. Bush and a legacy of golfing American Presidents
By Bill Felber
The non-golfers: An era removed from the links
Following more than a dozen years when the White House was more or less a clubhouse, the nation’s chief executives gradually took up other pursuits. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929), who succeeded to the office on Harding’s death, did play, but not regularly or with much commitment.
It was said that Coolidge’s interest in the game was largely strategic. His terms coincided with a rise in the game’s popularity spurred by the deeds of Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen. Coolidge was enough of a politician to be seen doing popular things.
His successor, Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), had no interest in sporting activities other than fly fishing, to which he was addicted. Theodore Roosevelt (1933-1945), who ousted Hoover in the post-crash election of 1932, had once been an enthusiastic player, a club champion during his college years.
The polio that largely confined him to a wheelchair also ended Roosevelt’s active golfing days well before his election, making his strongest connection to the game the funding of some golf-related WPA projects. The best-known among them today is probably Bethpage State Park in New York, whose Black Course has hosted the U.S. Open.
Like Hoover, Harry Truman (1945-1953) had no interest in golf. The best that could be said of Truman was that he was ambivalent about it. Invited during the Eisenhower administration to join Democratic criticism of his successor’s love of the game, Truman declined, asserting that presidents needed to find means of relaxation where they could.