America's golfing presidents

Keeping up a long tradition: Bush Junior and Senior

John F Kennedy played with great flair but did not want his fellow Americans to know about it; Bill Clinton liked to bend the rules; and the Bushes - father and son - go in for speed golf, charging round the course.

The contrasting golfing styles of American presidents are chronicled in a new book called First Off The Tee: White House Golf Tales, by New York Times reporter Don Van Natta.

It is the sport of presidents: 14 of the last 17 occupants of the Oval Office liked to tee off.

According to Van Natta, the tradition began with William Taft - but he was "ridiculous - he looked like a sumo wrestler trying to hit a fly with a fly swatter".

Calvin Coolidge dressed for golf "as if he was going to a dinner party", Van Natta told US National Public Radio.

He held the most powerful office and never frightened anybody, then he started playing golf regularly and scared the hell out of the world

Comedian Bob Hope describing Gerald Ford

"He wore sneakers that looked like large clown slippers."

Contrast that with John F Kennedy, who was a great player - a member of the Harvard golf team as a student - but was "obsessively secret about his love of the game".

Despite a bad back, Kennedy had a "graceful, effortless swing, which allowed him to easily rank as the best player among the 14 presidential golfers", Van Natta writes.

Kennedy did not want to be compared with his predecessor Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower, who made no secret of his passion for the game and even installed a putting green on the south lawn of the White House.

The golf excuse

The Kennedy entourage joked about Eisenhower's golf craze, nicknaming him the "Duffer-in-Chief".

Kennedy: Kept his golfing prowess under wraps

JFK's aides only let on about the new president's golfing prowess to quash scurrilous rumours about his other alleged extra-curricular activities.

"He was sneaking off doing other things and [spokesman] Pierre Salinger had to tell people, 'No, no, no. He's playing golf.' That was better than the alternative," says Van Natta.

The author puts Bill Clinton top of a "Hail to the Cheats" section, which also features Richard Nixon, Warren Harding and Lyndon Johnson.

Van Natta says he played a round with Mr Clinton last summer and "he followed the rules for about a hole and a half".

'Aerobic golf'

When he first wrote about Mr Clinton's golfing style in 1999, he provoked a furious complaint from Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of the Clintons, who told him: "You called him a cheater! The president takes his golf game... very seriously".

Bill Clinton: Allegedly took repeat swings

According to Van Natta, Warren Harding used to gamble on the green and even drank there during prohibition, "enforcing the rules of golf, but not the rules of the country, on the golf course".

As for George W Bush and Bush Senior, they play "aerobic golf" - a style which contrasts with Mr Clinton, who would take six hours to get through 18 holes, Van Natta says.

For the Bushes, "the score doesn't matter - it's the time elapsed that matters the most", he says.

Why can't US presidents get enough of this sport?

Van Natta says they love the "mind game" and camaraderie of golf - and the release it provides from the pressures of high office.