By Jim Nantz
For more than a quarter century, I was fortunate to visit and play golf with President George H.W. Bush dozens of times, usually while paying a visit to the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. With the passing of this great man and mentor, I feel at least one story can be told that pretty much encapsulates the man who carried the virtues of life—and golf—with every breath.

In 2005, President Bush served as co-chair with President Bill Clinton for tsunami- relief efforts in Southeast Asia. It was a partnership that raised $1.5 billion in aid. During this time a friendship developed between the former political rivals, and together they decided to secretly get together on a social basis that summer. Somehow, they chose me to be their “intermediary”—as they called it—for their two-day, two-night mini-vacation in Maine. Usually when I visited 41 it entailed not just golf but playing horseshoes, going out on his boat, cruising over to the little seaport of Ogunquit for lobster rolls and ice cream at Barnacle Billy’s, and long chats at the main house. Each stay was like going to summer camp. Every day was field day. But for this particular stay, President Bush explained that I’d make an easy companion for the two of them as they played their first round of golf together since the two of them, along with President Gerald Ford, teed it up at the Bob Hope Classic in 1995. Presidents Bush and Clinton played golf together three times after that, and I’m proud to say I was there for all of them.

RELATED: George H.W. Bush passes away at 94—golf loses one of its greatest advocates

The venue was Cape Arundel Golf Club, a storied Walter Travis course where President Bush had learned to play golf and where his father, Prescott Bush—a former USGA president—had won the club championship eight times. President Bush also was a Cape Arundel club champ, having beaten a postal worker named Chad Brown, 8 and 7, in the final in 1947.

The round between the two former leaders of the free world began nicely, both rooting each other on. President Clinton birdied two of the first three holes. On the par-4 fifth, which is only 315 yards, President Bush drove into trouble in a small hollow left of the fairway. He had just 125 yards to the green, but it was a tough shot. As he was contemplating how to play it, President Clinton rushed over to offer help. “No need to go at the green,” he said. “Just look at your lie. It’s too risky.” With that, President Clinton walked up the slope to the safe part of the fairway and waved his arms like a football official calling a timeout. “Aim right at me, George!” he hollered.

Stan Badz/PGA Tour Bush and Clinton pose with the Presidents Cup before the first day of the 2005 competition.

President Bush murmured to me, “What do you think I should do?” He clearly wanted to go for the green. I said, “Sir, how old were you the first time you played here?” President Bush said, “I was 10.” I said, “How many times do you figure you’ve played this hole? Fifty times a year on average? Maybe thousands all told? I’m just saying, President Clinton has never played here.”

President Bush reached for the iron that would get him home, but then hesitated. “Jimmy, he’s making such an effort,” he said. “Look at him up there, waving his arms. He’s my guest. I want him to be happy.” And with that, he pitched back into the fairway. He played his next shot—still 120 out—onto the green and faced a 20-footer for par.

Now, President Bush was a terrible putter. He’d battled the yips for a long time and eventually found some solace in an extra-long putter known as the Pole-Kat. I don’t think he ever saw a putt he liked. But this time he knocked it right into the center of the cup for his par. Everyone whooped. President Clinton came over, high-fived President Bush and said, “See, George? That was the right way to play it!” Forty-one agreed, and the two of them walked to the sixth tee arm in arm. Truly bonded like never before. American patriots, now friends forever. It was a beautiful moment.

George H.W. Bush had perhaps the greatest résumé in American history. Director of the CIA, ambassador to the U.N., envoy to China, vice president of the United States and then, of course, president. It’s staggering to contemplate one person achieving so much. But to me and many others, our lives were highlighted by having George H.W. Bush as a great and loyal friend. What I saw in President Bush’s behavior was respect, civility, deference and decency. These traits were central to who he was. And they melded perfectly with the game that he loved.

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The former president often boasted that he held the course record at Cape Arundel Golf Club in Kennebunkport, Maine. What, a 66 or 67? “An hour and 20 minutes,” Ken Raynor, Cape Arundel’s professional, would explain.

Golf lost an important advocate on Friday, when Bush, the 41st president of the United States, died, his family said in a statement. He was 94.

His golf pedigree can be found in his name. George Herbert Walker was his maternal grandfather, a former president of the United States Golf Association, who was instrumental in the founding of the biennial amateur competition that bears his name, the Walker Cup. Bush’s father, Prescott Bush, was also a former USGA president and a scratch golfer who impressed upon his son the importance of playing golf at a fast pace.

Hunter Martin

“Speed may be the only thing I’m known for on the golf course,” Bush told the authors of My Best Day in Golf: Celebrity Stories of the Game They Love. “My father, Prescott Bush, was a fabulous golfer. … He was the one who instilled the value of fast play in me, and in my son as well. In fact, he once told George W., ‘Son, looking at your swing, you’re probably not going to be a great golfer, so make sure you play fast.’ ”

Bush 41 not only played quickly, he played well enough to have won the club championship at Cape Arundel in 1947. Late in 2011, the club announced that it was renaming the clubhouse, 41 House, in Bush’s honor.

“President Bush is and will always be one of the most memorable men in Cape Arundel Golf Club’s rich history, and this is a way to thank him for all that he has done for this great club,” club president J. Pierce O’Neil said at the time.

Both George Herbert Walker and Prescott Bush were members at Cape Arundel, the latter winning the club championship eight times. It was at Cape Arundel that Bush learned the game and played what likely was his most enjoyable golf, often with other luminaries, including Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman and Golf Digest’s Dan Jenkins, who had become a friend over the years.

Reed Saxon

But it was in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in 1995 that he played his most newsworthy round, the shots heard ’round the world. He was part of a fivesome that included Clinton, the sitting president, as well as former president Gerald Ford, Hope and Scott Hoch.

It was a round marked by persistent shouts of “fore,” though no one added “more years” in what was a Republican stronghold in the California desert. By one estimation, 20,000 spectators were on hand at Indian Wells Country Club that day, many of them ducking for cover at various points of the round. Bush tagged two spectators with errant shots, drawing blood from one when his ball caromed off a tree and struck a woman on the bridge of the nose.

Bush never appeared comfortable during that round, for two apparent reasons. He often spoke of “the humiliation factor,” which no doubt was amplified in front of a large crowd. And the pace at which he prefers to play, measured with a stop watch rather than a sundial, was not remotely attainable. The round took “an obscene six hours,” former Golf World editor Jaime Diaz, then with Sports Illustrated, wrote.

Charles Tasnadi

Bush’s best work in golf, at any rate, occurred off the course, in the service of others. Service was his calling, as he demonstrated in public life as a war hero, Congressman, Ambassador to the United Nations, CIA Director, Vice President and President. He similarly served the game of golf selflessly and did so with honor and distinction.

When The First Tee was founded in 1997, he accepted the position of honorary chairman. At a World Golf Hall of Fame news conference in 2011, former PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem noted “4.7 million young people in the United States have been touched by The First Tee program. But for President Bush, that would not have happened.

“He attended openings of facilities. He wrote letters to people who gave money,” Finchem continued. “He traveled, he spoke, he got on the telephone. He wasn’t a chairman in name only. He worked at it. But because of his lending his prestige and image and commitment and enthusiasm to what The First Tee is it’s the success it is today.”

The major golf organisations in the U.S. all recognized his contributions to the game. In 1997, he received the PGA of America’s Distinguished Service Award. The USGA presented him its highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, recognizing distinguished sportsmanship, in 2008, and the PGA Tour accorded him its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. And the American Society of Golf Course Architects honoured him with its Donald Ross Award.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

At his core, Bush simply loved the game, whether playing it or watching it. He attended several Presidents Cups and Ryder Cups and was a frequent visitor to the Shell Houston Open and other professional tournaments.

“His passion and love for the game is second to none,” Greg Norman said in a video played at Bush’s Hall of Fame induction. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re number one in the world or a 27-handicapper who loves the game, his commitment and dedication in seeing the game go from strength to strength, from one level to the next, has been phenomenal.”

It doesn’t matter, Norman might have said, so long as you play the game the way Bush and his family understood it should be played. Expeditiously.

“Your Bushes,” Jenkins wrote, “don’t throw a lot of grass up in the air when they play.”

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