Three presidents played golf with Bob Hope during the 1995 golf tournament at the Indian Wells Country Club.
Marilyn Chung/The Desert Sun
Of all the remarkable days in the 59-year history of the desert’s PGA Tour event, Feb. 15, 1995 might have been the most remarkable. And there in the middle of it was George H.W. Bush.
Just a little over two years after being defeated in his attempt at a second term as president, there was Bush, the 41st president, standing on the 10th tee at Indian Wells Country Club with the man who had beaten him in the presidential race, Bill Clinton.
For good measure, the 38th president, Gerald Ford, was also on the tee, along with PGA Tour professional and defending tournament champion Scott Hoch and the man whose name was on the tournament at the time, Bob Hope.
It was golf’s famous First Fivesome playing in the first round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, now known as the Desert Classic. And while having Hope and Ford playing with the defending champion was hardly news, having Clinton and Bush playing in the grouping was national news. Not national sports news, but national news that brought the White House press and news media from across the country to the Coachella Valley.
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It was a coup for Hope to get three presidents to play together in the desert tournament. But the story was Bush and Clinton agreeing to play together after a fairly acrimonious election just two years earlier. Clinton and Bush did not have warm feelings for each other, and Bush was quite hurt when he lost the election to a man who used the slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid,” during the campaign.
But they had buried the hatchet on this day to play golf together and honor Hope and his accomplishments as a golfer and an American.
Or had they? Had Bush really agreed to play a round of golf with Clinton? Or had the tournament pulled a little bit of a fast one on the former president?
Years after the famous round, one of the tournament board members and original founders of the desert tournament in 1960 admitted the truth. Ernie Dunlevie was a board member in 1960 and still a board member in 1995.
In an interview I did with Dunlevie, he admitted that the tournament might not have told the entire truth when asking Bush to play. Bush thought that he was playing on the same day and same course as Clinton, but not in the same group. Dunlevie decided to deliver the new to Bush through a mutual friend, golf legend Arnold Palmer
“(Palmer) said ‘Ernie, I’m here with President Bush and he wants to know if it’s true who he is supposed to play with,’” Dunlevie recalled of a conversation just one week before the tournament.
“Yes, Arnold, I’m afraid it’s true,” Dunlevie said. “Arnold turned to George Bush and said, ‘I just got it from the horse’s mouth.’”
Talking about the day later in a Desert Sun interview, Gerald Ford delivered a political understatement, “I think it was well known there was some lack of deep friendship between Bush and Clinton.”
Maybe someone else would have pulled out of the tournament. Bush didn’t withdraw. He showed up that bright February morning wearing a blue tournament shirt, while Clinton wore a red tournament shirt. They smiled and laughed and posed for pictures, then went out and played what might have been the last time Bob Hope, then 91, played 18 full holes of golf (though he would pick up here and drop a ball there from time to time).
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At the end of the day, Bush had a little revenge by beating Clinton’s score for the round. And Bush, who liked to play rapid golf and get 18 holes finished in about two hours, did complain a bit about the pace of play on the PGA Tour.
In later years, Bush and Clinton developed a friendship that extended to Bush’s son, the 43rd president, George W. Bush. But for the desert, for one day and for a tribute to Hope and his tournament, Clinton and Bush did come together for a round of golf.
It was a day no one will forget if they were there, and it was a day that will be etched in tournament and PGA Tour history.
Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or [email protected] Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan.
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