I showed my AP US History students a biography of Woodrow Wilson  today, and was amused that the following quote came up:

“Golf is an ineffectual attempt to put an elusive ball into an obscure hole with implements ill-adapted to the purpose.” -

The New York Times has an article on this year’s Professional Hickory Golf Championship. I’ve long wanted to don plus-fours or a linen suit and play with hickory clubs and a gutta percha.

In a salute to those stars of the 1920s and the history of golf, two dozen players showed up Monday for the second annual United States Professional Hickory Golf Championship. They walked the venerable 1922 Tom Bendelow course, carrying small bags of wooden-shafted clubs.

Men in ties, caps and argyle socks and women in skirts and stylish hats played low bump-and-run shots into the greens. They used clubs with names like mashie, brassie, niblick and jigger stamped into the tiny club heads, some irons looking more like straight razors than golf clubs. They played with replica rubber golf balls from the 1920s that usually landed at least 10 yards short of typical targets.

“It’s like we stepped into a time machine,” said Kevin Weickel, the 2011 North Florida Golf P.G.A. pro of the year and the tournament director of the P.G.A. Tour’s Children’s Miracle Network Hospital Classic in Orlando. “You almost see the ghosts of those old pros scattered around the first tee.”

He added: “Some of these old trees were here back in 1925, and they were a part of that tournament. Looking around today, it makes me wonder if this is my field of dreams.”

I saw this Soviet Space Propaganda poster on How to Be a Retronaut and it looks to me like that rocket cartoon is carrying a golf club.

Imitating Alan Shephard, perhaps?

With his victory at the 2012 AT&T National Pro Am, Phil Mickelson moved into a tie for ninth place on the all time PGA Tour victories list. Cary Middlecoff also holds that position.

Five more wins puts him past Walter Hagen, a feat that seems inevitable. Billy Casper and Byron Nelson at 51 and 52 also seem within reach.

The all time leader is Sam Snead, who over a 30 year career clocked 82 wins. Nicklaus is in second with 73. Tiger has 71.

I’ve always thought that for Tiger, breaking Snead’s record will be easier than approaching Jack’s Majors. But I’m no longer so sure about either of them.

The list of players with 20 or more Tour victories is below:

An interesting bit of golf and baseball history is up for auction: a scorecard signed by Babe Ruth.

As of this moment, the bid is $2,148

A little grammatical humor in the headline here. The Great Jack Nicklaus turns seventy two today (Jan 21, 1940); he didn’t shoot 72 (but I’m sure he’s still can get to even par).

‘72—1972—also was a great season in Nicklaus’ career. He won the Masters and US Open by three shots each, starting talk of a Grand Slam. His performance that US Open may be best remembered for his one iron into the par 3 seventeenth at Pebble Beach which struck the flagstick and ended up three inches from the cup. That title also tied him with Bobby Jones for career Majors (13) and with Walter Hagen for professional Majors (11th).  Then, Nicklaus finished second—one shot behind—to Lee Trevino at the Open Championship.  Player won that year’s PGA.  Nicklaus won seven tournaments, finished second in four and had fifteen top ten finishes.

That season has been written about in the terrific: Tour ‘72: Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, and Trevino: The Story of One Great Season

Happy Birthday to the Golden Bear—Golf’s Greatest.

(BTW, if you ever get the chance to visit the Nicklaus museum at Ohio State in Columbus, do so. It’s terrific.)

It seems that my fears have been realized: golf is going to be an issue in this political campaign; or more specifically, Obama’s golf habit is going to be an issue in this campaign. Likely GOP Nominee Mitt Romney has even got a website, FortyFour.Com, which takes a shot at the First Golfer and asks people to donate $18 to send him on a permanent vacation.

Now I’m no fan of the job performance of the President, but I think that golf isn’t a legitimate campaign issue. Lots of Presidents have played golf as a way of getting away from the pressure cooker of the White House. In recent years, Bill Clinton was probably most well known for his habits, including cheating (on golf, as well as in other areas). And we know that George W. Bush gave up the game for the duration of the Iraq War. George H.W. Bush was an avid golfer who since has been named to the Golf Hall of Fame. Reagan gave up golf after an assassination attempt went awry. Gerald Ford, a stellar athlete also played the game.

Going back a few years, more, I think a solid argument can be made that in golf terms, Dwight Eisenhower was as important a president as we’ve had. His well known obsession and his popularity combined to turn the game into a national pastime.

William Howard Taft played:

And he apparently played enough that it was used a political fodder in the humor magazines of the time:

Woodrow Wilson played—apparently quite a bit:

As did Warren Harding

So too, did more than a few Supreme Court Justices. Below you’ll see John Marshall Harlan:

And Justices McKenna and Pitney.

For me, the key is what they do off the course, not how much time they spend on it.

(note: most of these photos are from the Library of Congress, with the exception of Life’s photo of Wilson)