Golf Digest’s Top 15 Golfin’ Presidents

This week, Bill Clinton will be hosting this week’s PGA tour event. Among Clinton’s many achievements, he is also an accomplished golfer with a handicap in the mid-teens. According to GolfDigest.com, Clinton hopes that his participation in the PGA will raise awareness for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation – a program aimed at decreasing childhood obesity. He may even play a couple of days, though he admits that his best golfing year was over a decade ago. “My best year as a golfer was 2001,” Clinton said. “I got down to a legitimate 10; the only time I was ever a 10. And I was hitting the ball forever. The next year I went to 34 countries. Next year I finished writing my book. Next year I had my heart surgery. It’s been one thing after another. But I still love to play.”

Bill Clinton isn’t the only recent President to make an appearance out on the links. President Barack Obama is the 15th of the past 18 American presidents who has played golf. He doesn’t play often, but the courses of Hawaii happen to be among the President’s favorites. So, let’s take a look at the top 15 golfing presidents according to GolfDigest:

1. John F. Kennedy – Despite chronic back pain, averaged 80
2. Dwight D. Eisenhower – Had a green outside of the Oval Office
3. Gerald R. Ford – Clumsy, but was a legitimate 80s-shooter
4. Franklin D. Roosevelt – At 39, polio robbed him of a powerful golf swing.
5. George H. W. Bush – Once got his handicap down to 11.
6. George W. Bush – Outgoing prez is a capable 15-handicapper.
7. Bill Clinton – Can break 90, especially using his “Billigans.”
8. Barack Obama – The lefty plays more hoops than golf.
9. Ronald Reagan – Didn’t play often or well (best was low 90s).
10. Warren G. Harding – Struggled to break 95.
11. William Howard Taft – As hapless a golfer as he was a chief executive.
12. Woodrow Wilson – Played more than Ike but almost never broke 100.
13. Richard M. Nixon – He shot 79 once and quit the game.
14. Lyndon B. Johnson – Played with senators to secure votes for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
15. Calvin Coolidge – When he vacated the White House, he left his clubs behind.

So there you have it RockHeads! How do you stack up against some of our greatest golfing Presidents? Leave your stats in the comment section below!