Presidents getting the rub of the green on the White House lawn

William Howard Taft is acknowledged as the first golf enthusiast to have become president of the US. So, it was highly appropriate that the emergence of the first American-born winner of the US Open should have occurred during his term in office, when Johnny McDermott had successive triumphs in 1911 and 1912.

It is interesting to note that Taft's predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt, frowned upon what he described as a sissy sport. But Taft was more in touch with the times insofar as Americans in their hundreds of thousands had taken up the Royal and Ancient game by 1910.

"The beauty of golf," said the generously-rounded politician, "is that you cannot play if you permit yourself to think of anything else." And he believed in practising what he preached, to the extent of snubbing a foreign head of state who had just arrived in Washington.

"I'll be damned if I will give up my game to see this fellow," Taft told the White House messenger, before continuing with his round.

His golfing exploits were widely reported in the nation's press and in the course of this reporting, the public learned that Taft liked to chastise the ball when it took a wayward line. And they were also informed that he was a poor putter.

Whatever about the accuracy of his ball striking, Taft's short game would clearly have benefited from current White House facilities. Especially since President Bill Clinton had the putting green restored in 1995.

The green, which was originally located some 50 paces from the Oval Office, was built in the 1950s, during the presidency of Dwight D Eisenhower, whose enthusiasm for golf has been well documented, especially by the Augusta National club, where he was a member. We are told that Ike used the facility on such a regular basis that it became widely regarded as the Eisenhower Green.

Though his successor, John F Kennedy, was an accomplished golfer, probably the best ever to occupy the White House, he rarely used the green. In the event, it was finally removed during the presidency of Richard Nixon who, ironically, had been Eisenhower's vice-president.

So things remained for the next 20 years, until the autumn of 1994. That was when Clinton, while attending the inaugural President's Cup at Lake Manassas, Virginia, suggested that the upcoming centenary of the US Golf Association would be an ideal opportunity to restore golf to the White House.

What he had in mind was rebuilding the putting green and the idea was greeted enthusiastically by USGA president Reg Murphy and by leading golf-course architect, Robert Trent Jones Jnr. "I told President Clinton that building a putting green at the White House should actually be considered a restoration," said Jones, who indicated that he would explore the feasibility of building the new structure on the site of the old Eisenhower Green.

As Marty Parkes reported in the USGA's Golf Journal, Jones used old photographs as a guide, though Clinton opted not to include the small bunker which was in the original layout. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the work, however, is that it cost the US taxpayer nothing.

All of the machinery, materials and manpower were donated. And by the late spring of 1995, Jones's associate, Doug Ingram, spent a week contouring the soil and installing an irrigation system. And it was while encountering old gravel and drain lines during the course of this work that they knew they had found the site of the original green.

"We knew we couldn't use the old drain lines because they were almost 50 years old," said Ingram. "They wouldn't have met today's standards for a USGA green. But some of the big, old bits of gravel and pieces of red drain tile we uncovered made great souvenirs of the project." Building the new green was likened to baking a cake, with one layer being stacked on top of another, each designed to enhance a different maintenance or conditioning practice.

When ready for play, we are informed that the green started out with a rather bumpy surface but after being cut twice daily and rolled, it gradually acquired the characteristics one would associate with a premier putting surface.

"The site of the green on the White House lawn is about as good as you could possibly find," enthused a local golf-course superintendent.

He went on: "Mr Jones really did a marvellous job in the restoration. A large oak, known as the Hoover oak because it was planted by Herbert Hoover, stands nearby. It stands on the west side of the green and receives the late-afternoon sun. It would have been much more of an obstacle if it stood on the east side and blocked out the early morning light." The green has five holes, one in the centre and the other four spread along the perimeter and each of the five flagsticks bears the presidential seal. We can take it that leaving it behind was a particular wrench for the golfing Bill Clinton, who has displayed his skills in this country at such leading venues as Ballybunion and The K Club.

Meanwhile, when Eisenhower played golf, he did so with the authority of a general leading the troops. And the story goes that on a certain weekend in 1952 at the famous Burning Tree GC in Washington, he was approached by the then head of Republic Steel and other leading Republicans and lobbied to run for president. A key moment in US history was taking place on a golf course.

It was noted that while Eisenhower could hardly have been described as a skilful player, there was a brand of intensity about his game. Max Elbin, the then resident professional at Burning Tree recalled: "Of all the presidents who played golf here, I categorise he (Eisenhower) and Gerald Ford as the two who most wanted to win. And it didn't matter if it was for a nickel or a dollar, they wanted to be paid." Stephen Ambrose, Eisenhower's biographer, remembered how the White House putting green had been groomed specifically for the golfing incumbent. And how perturbed Ike became when his practice balls were purloined by invading squirrels .

"He had the secret service trap the squirrels and take them to Camp David," said Ambrose, who was unsure whether the animals were relocated by White House helicopter or in Ike's limousine.

Now, with the putting green fully operative once more, the squirrels are another man's problem.