A friendly golf round among presidents? What seems impossible now happened 30 years ago

Posted by Admin January 14, 2025 Golf

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Try to imagine this scenario: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Barack Obama walking onto the first tee of a golf course together and cameras and photographers and golf fans lining the fairways to get a good look at history.

Impossible, you say? Getting those three men in the same room would be difficult, much less in the same foursome for five hours? Why would the two more recent presidents and a past president agree to play golf together in public?

It does seem highly unlikely that those three occupants of the Oval Office would play golf together in such a highly divided political environment. But think back 30 years ago and it’s easy to marvel that such a thing did happen in The American Express, then the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

Sitting President Bill Clinton, the man Clinton beat to win the presidency in George H.W. Bush, and former president and long-time desert resident Gerald Ford did come together for about five hours of unity in the first round of the 1995 tournament. The reason was obvious to everyone. The presidents were paying tribute to Hope, the tournament host, for his decades of support of golf, the U.S.O. and locally the Eisenhower Medical Center.

Without question, it was a kinder, gentler time as Bush might have said. But the buildup to the historic fivesome – the presidents played with Hope and defending tournament champion Scott Hoch – was not without its controversy. Tournament officials had indeed managed to get the three presidents in the field, but the rumors persisted that Bush was ambushed by having the three presidents paired together rather than in three separate pairings.

Remember, the campaign between Bush and the challenger Clinton through the summer and fall of 1992 had not been all that friendly. Clinton liked to use the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid,” in his speeches, with Bush the target of the insult.

Still, Clinton became the first sitting president to play in a regular PGA Tour event pro-am. Bush had played in a pre-tournament pro-am on the PGA Tour Champions while he was president in his home state of Texas. Ford had been out of office 18 years by the time the famous threesome came together at Indian Wells Country Club and was a fixture in the featured foursome of the tournament for most of those years with Hope.

The day turned into a kind of celebration not only of Hope but of the presidency. Clinton, Bush and Ford smiled, posed for pictures on the driving range with pros like Arnold Palmer and then started the round on the 10th hole at Indian Wells Country Club.

Yes, Bush hit a wayward shot on that first hole that bounced off a tree and hit a woman in the face, but that was the most damaging blow of the day. Ford seemed happy to have other presidents spray balls around the course as he had been accused of by Hope through the years.

Hope, 92 at the time, stayed out for all 18 holes despite some pleas from tournament staff that he come in for a few holes for some ice cream. The tournament host didn’t hit every shot on every hole, but he told officials if the presidents were staying on the course so was he.

Each January the PGA Tour comes to the desert with The American Express event

The American Express golf tournament has been a fixture in the desert since 1960

Hoch fired a 2-under 70, well above what a pro would want to shoot at Indian Wells but a pretty good round given the distractions of the day. Clinton would later say Hoch hit the ball from tee to green as well as he had ever seen.

There were not cross words or allegations or charges of illegality or threats to democracy on the day. It was merely a round of golf among five men who were happy to be part of the history.

A kinder, gentler world? Perhaps. Or perhaps golf had some magical power to bring people from across the political spectrum together on that day. It would be nice to think the game could do the same thing today.

Larry Bohannan is the golf writer for The Desert Sun. You can contact him at (760) 778-4633 or at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan.