Leaders' Drives: JFK's Golf Obsession

And 'that' conceded putt...

Photography: Getty Images

Good looking, the most powerful man on earth, lover of Marilyn Monroe and bloody good at golf too: JFK really did have it all.

Yet despite being a more than capable swinger – he would often shoot rounds in the 70s – JFK was as much a politician on the golf course as the Oval Office. One of his favoured tactics was to wait for his putts to be conceded, safe in the knowledge that the weight of the presidential stare would see most opponents giving JFK putts he may well have missed.

"Look Jack, J. Edgar Hoover's in the sand again"

His game against the presidential aide Chris Dunphy at the Seminole Golf Club in Palm Beach, Florida was a case in point. When Kennedy found himself faced with a tricky three-footer, Dunphy refused to give him the putt. As Kennedy waited for Dunphy to give in, he mentioned that he would soon be having lunch with the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service and was still undecided about increasing the number of audits of all White House staff. Suffice to say, the putt was soon conceded.