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Bill Clinton’s sports stirred more controversy, provoked more curiosity, caused more disdain, and even created more humor—surely more than George Bush and Gerald Ford, possibly more than Richard Nixon, and de>nitely more than Dwight Eisenhower. A big man at six foot three and 230 pounds, he was taller and heavier than his predecessors, including George Bush and Gerald Ford. He could drive a golf ball 300 yards—or more—and ran eight-minute miles when he jogged. His bowling average was 230, and he had played basketball and rugby at Oxford. But was he a natural athlete? Not by a long shot! His athletic ability tended to be an outgrowth of his ability to >nesse the rules, the scores, and his own image. A test case occurred in 1995 when President Clinton played a round with two of the best presidential athletes in history. That collector of presidential golfers, comedian Bob Hope, corralled Clinton, George Bush, and Gerald Ford to play in the same foursome (actually a >vesome) for Hope’s pro-am tournament. In the interviews before teeing o=, Clinton remarked to announcer Dick Enberg, “We are as nervous as cats.” Clinton had just spent a half hour warming up on the practice tee, something he seldom did.1 Measured by golf handicaps, Clinton played better golf than either of the former presidents. He listed his handicap as 11 while his senior partners had handicaps of 18. Of course, Clinton made no secret that he played by his own rules. He took mulligans or “billigans,” as they were sometimes called—extra shots when he didn’t like his drives or even his approach shots and sometimes just because he felt like it. He normally practiced while he was on the fairways, a violation of rule 7-2 of the United States Golf Association. He also took long gimmes, putts that his partners conceded to him. These gifts from Bill to himself or by his partners to the president were based on the assump22 Bill Clinton Oh, How He Played the Game ★ ★★ ★★★★★ ★ ★★ tion that he could make these putts, by no means as certain as he made them seem. On that day, there would be no mulligans and certainly none o= the fairway —gimmes, well, that depended on the other players. The presidential golf match was clearly a landmark for televised presidential sports. It was nearly half a century, after millions of television antennas sprouted across America and thirty years since televised sports had become a staple of American life. Seldom had presidents allowed themselves to be televised playing golf or, for that matter, any sport. Here, on network TV, were three presidents playing a game once regarded as frivolous. One might call it the unveiling of the sports presidency. But was it a victory for the youngest of the three, the man then occupying the Oval O;ce? Clinton won in only one category—he was the only one who didn’t hit a spectator. Bush hit two (one required ten stitches across her face and another was hit in the rump). The seventy-nine-year-old Ford grazed the pinkie of one bystander. Clinton, fortunately, missed the onlookers, but he didn’t win the match. Bush won a squeaker, 92 to Clinton’s 93 (not such a great score for a golfer with an 11 handicap). A stickler for putting every putt, Ford shot a score of 100. Scores and injuries aside, the match was more comical—or entertaining—than the ever-soclever newspaper headlines were able to convey. It took the three presidents six-and-a-half hours to play eighteen holes; the speedy Bush and the elderly Ford were perhaps thrown o= their game a little by the 91-year-old Bob Hope who slowed the pace. In addition to the shots that hit spectators, all three of the players hit a number of balls out of bounds. In spite of Ford’s rectitude, there were reports of the presidents giving each other generous gimmes to speed up play. Clinton, facing reelection in 1996, even charged into the galleries to greet his constituents. Getting beat by George Bush didn’t really hurt Clinton’s image or his ego. After all, both Bush and Ford were known for their athletics—and Republican presidents were notorious for spending a lot of time on well-groomed courses playing with corporate executives and celebrity golfers. During their student days, both Ford and Bush played intercollegiate sports at...

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