Ranked: Which US president is the best golfer? Donald Trump only No.4

Matt Cooper 29 Jul 2025

President Donald Trump smiles after the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster — Donald Trump: Not as good as golf as he thinks he is

In the modern day it has become almost something of a necessity for US presidents to play golf.

Why so? Well, Middle America sees the sport as being emblematic of the nation’s values of honesty, decency and competition.

It hasn’t always been that way.

Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, said: “I did not see the sense in chasing a little white ball around a field.”

While the 36th president Lyndon B. Johnson said: “I don’t have a handicap – I’m all handicap.”

Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president, did like the game but he also understood the essential dilemma of it: “Golf is a game in which one endeavours to put a small ball into an even smaller hole with implements ill-adapted for the purpose.”

Then there is Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president, who loved the game and was a good friend of Arnold Palmer, but he is perhaps best known for being trolled by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.

Eisenhower opted out of a meeting with the revolutionaries, so they had photos taken of them playing golf, which he was known to love.

Their aim was to mock his bourgeois activities, but it didn’t really work because he felt no shame in the activity or being bourgeois.

But who are the presidents who were the best at golf?

Here is our top 10.

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt

The 32nd president is another who didn’t play during his presidency, in his case because aged 39 he contracted polio. His handicap was never recorded but he was a club champion (hopefully a real one) and could shoot in the low 80s. He was a big advocate of building municipal golf courses which clinches the deal. A moral win.

2. John F. Kennedy

The 35th president was a 7 handicap whose later golf was marred by his back injuries. He’s another who liked to play fast and often preferred 9 holes to 18. His friend Ben Bradlee said: “He could hit it a ton but often had no idea where it was going.”

3. Joe Biden

The 46th president said: “If you want to keep your handicap in golf, don’t run for president.” But he was also quite a senior when he ran for president, so Father Time was as much to blame. His best handicap was recorded at 6.7.

4. Donald Trump

The 45th president has a handicap of 2.8 but there is too much evidence that it is another dodgy number, so he can’t make the top three. Rick Reilly even wrote a book called ‘Commander in Cheat’ that chronicled Trump’s quite astounding cheating.

For example: He’s nicknamed Pele by caddies at Winged Foot because he kicks the ball so often. He plays a round of golf and if it’s any good he phones it in to win Club Championships (never mind he was on the wrong course). And he has a bold stab at every first putt because he’ll give himself one coming back.

A PGA Tour winner once told me he is: “Good from the tee, great with a 6-iron, can’t chip for sh*t, and guns every putt because he picks up after the first effort.”

5. George H. W. Bush

W’s dad was big on the qualities of the game, saying: “Golf teaches you honesty. It teaches you discipline. It gives you a strong appreciation of nature. And personal responsibility, something that lacks in our society at times. I mean, it’s only your fault, you can’t blame anyone else when you shank it. Or pick the wrong club.”

At his best he played off 10 and, in contrast to many presidents, he played significantly less golf when he was in The White House.

6. George W. Bush

The 41st president would not have enjoyed playing in the recent Open because he liked to play his golf fast. He once finished 18 holes in 1 hour and 20 minutes. He was even inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011 and said: “It’s amazing how many people beat you at golf now that you’re no longer president.” He played off 11 at his best.

7. Gerald Ford

The 38th president was something of a joke when it comes to his golf, not out of nastiness – more because he was an avid fan of the game, perhaps the most devoted of all presidents and he played off 12, but he was dangerous in all the wrong ways.

He even said: “I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators.” Bob Hope wasn’t so convinced. He said: “It’s not hard to find Gerry Ford on a golf course – you just follow the wounded.”

8. Richard Nixon

The 37th president and perhaps the most disgraced, too, following the Watergate Scandal. That palaver might have impacted on him giving up the game while in the White House (he was a 12 handicap at his best) and he even ripped up the putting green that Eisenhower had installed.

9. Bill Clinton

The 42nd president was, to put it bluntly, a dodgy golfer. He insisted: “I improved my handicap when I was in office. I was a probably a 16 when I came into the White House and a 12 when I left.” But he took “Billigans” – mulligans to you and me – and he took so many we simply can’t believe that 12.

John Daly wasn’t impressed, saying: “I had to play with (Clinton) one time. His golf game is almost as (bad) as what’s going on in our (Biden) administration right now.”

10. Barack Obama

The 44th President was a 13 handicap at best and in the 20s most often. He was also the first left-handed White House golfer of them all. Shortly after his Presidency ended, he played The Old Course at St Andrews. His love of the game is genuine.