Most golfers know about “a mulligan.” That’s when you tee off on the first hole and hit a lousy tee shot and then promptly hit another tee shot, and if your second one is better, you play that one and thus abandon your first tee shot. So, in normal language it’s called “a do-over.” But not for David Bernard Mulligan, an amateur golfer in Montreal back in 1952.
Sportswriter Don Mackintosh reported in the Sudbury Star that Mr. Mulligan said in Mackintosh’s interview of him, “One day while playing in my usual foursome, I hit a ball off the first tee that was long enough but not straight. I was so provoked with myself that on impulse I stooped over and put another ball down. The other three looked at me with considerable puzzlement and one of them asked, ‘What are you doing?’
There no doubt were a lot of times on the PGA Tour when I would have liked to have taken a mulligan.
I was thinking the other day that my legendary, pro golfing friend Jack Nicklaus needed a mulligan. It was when I read Jack’s written comments on October 28th on social media, including his Twitter account, when he said of the upcoming presidential election, “This is not a personality contest; it’s about patriotism, policies, and the people they impact. His love for America and its citizens, and putting his country first, has come through loud and clear. How he has said it has not been important to me. What has been important are his actions. Now, you have the opportunity to take action.”
Jack obviously was endorsing Trump for reelection. Jack also warned that not voting for Republican Trump, thus voting for Democrat Joe Biden, would result in “a socialist America.” Jack revealed that he had known many U.S. presidents in his lifetime, and he has indeed played golf with Donald Trump multiple times.
Jack also claimed that Trump was “more diverse than any president I have seen.” I think that statement is a somewhat ambiguous, yet very incendiary. Most people would understand it to mean that President Trump has fairly represented a larger diversity of Americans than any other president in, say, the past sixty years. There sure are a lot of people of color in this country right now, especially with the Black Lives Matter movement that arose this summer, who would argue with that.
This is Masters week. Yesterday, the eighty-one year old, six-time Masters champion and Gary Player, who is eighty-six years old, performed Masters’ tradition together by each hitting the first ball off the first tee to start the tournament. USATODAY reporter Christine Brennan afterwards asked Jack in a media event, “You are known as the ultimate gracious sportsman in the game of golf and really throughout sports, certainly with your career, with Ryder Cups, the way you’ve handled victory and defeat and the like. I’m just curious: What is your advice to President Trump on how to accept defeat?” See my recent post about this, “Trump Doesn’t Play the Gentleman’s Game.”
Jack replied briefly and succinctly, “I think I’ve said enough about that. I don’t think this is a place for politics.” He then asked for the next question. I’d say in that moment that Jack needed to take a mulligan, but he refused. I guess that’s a pro for you. Or is it?
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