eisenhower Archives • GolfStinks

The older and wiser I get, the more I understand the principal and benefits behind planning stuff. I used to be a very spur of the moment person which had it’s fun moments but, for the most part, ended up doing more bad than good. For instance, one night back in my college days I was working on a paper due the next day. It was a 10 page essay on something or other I can’t quite remember. So, a buddy of mine called to inform me of the 25 cent pitcher special that ends at 9:30 pm. “Hmmmm…” I thought to myself. ” It’s only 6:30 now, I can be back here in a few hours. Perfect!” You see what I mean?

It’s funny, when it came to school work or a job I didn’t like, anything was better than what I was doing. Especially golfing! That was my escape. At one point, I thought I needed to go to rehab because I was golfing every single day, sometime twice! If I had an assignment due on Friday and it’s Wednesday, no problem, I still have Thursday to do it…I need to get a round in. Actually, that still goes on today but my judgement is much better.

This year marks a first for me. I’m going to try and make a 3 tier golf schedule for myself. Tier 1 being a perfect season with no issues and playing every date on my schedule. Tier 2 is a modified schedule with real life situations thrown in and at the end I would be happy with the amount of times I played. And tier 3, this is all about reality…if I play 15% of tier 1’s schedule it would be considered a normal year and I would be OK with that.

I’m trying to ease into this planning and scheduling thing and not set myself up for failure. I have to say, having a plan helps. I only wonder what today would be like if Eisenhower winged the D-Day invasion? Yep, planning is key.

Hit’em long…yell FORE!!!

As we get close to President’s Day, I began to wonder how many presidents were golfers and how would they rank amongst each other.

So, with the intentions of embarking on an arduous journey of research and collecting data, I went online and with the click of a few buttons found the following list thanks to Golf Digest!

Without further ado, the ranking of golfing presidents:

1. John F. Kennedy

2. Dwight D. Eisenhower

3. Gerald R. Ford

4. Franklin D. Roosevelt

5. George H. W. Bush

6. George W. Bush

7. Bill Clinton

8. Barack Obama

9. Ronald Reagan

10. Warren G. Harding

11. William Howard Taft

12. Woodrow Wilson

13. Richard M. Nixon

14. Lyndon B. Johnson

15. Calvin Coolidge

Who would of thought that with such a short term, unfortunately, JFK would be leading the pack? Supposedly he had a handicap somewhere between 7-10! Ike picked-up the game at 37 and played over 800 rounds in his career. His handicap hovered somewhere in the 14-17 range.

Ford was a passionate golfer who consistently shot in the 80 ‘s. He was also known for his errant shots that would hit spectators. After a round at the Bob Hope Classic he jokingly said: “I would like to deny all allegations by Bob Hope that during my last game of golf, I hit an eagle, a birdie, an elk and a moose.”

FDR was quite an accomplished golfer until stricken with polio. However, one of his greatest contributions to golf was the construction of 250 municipal courses that made the game accessible to hundreds of thousands.

A definite must-read for those interested in golfing presidents should check out: “First Off the Tee: Presidential Hackers, Duffers, and Cheaters from Taft to Bush” written by Don Van Atta Jr. Van Atta, a New York Times reporter, humorously approaches the subject and reveals some interesting things such as Bill Clinton ‘s “Billigans.” Van Atta shot a round with the Ex-prez after his term, discovering how, through the use of “Billigans,” he was able to break 80. Go figure, of all the presidents that would cheat…

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