Then-President Bill Clinton (right) and former presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush (left) pose for a portrait after a round of golf at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic Pro-Am in 1995 at Indian Wells Country Club. / Mark J. Terrill THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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When Betty and Jerry Ford moved to Rancho Mirage in 1977, in many ways they were no different than thousands of other snowbirds who had left the cold winters of other areas — Michigan and Washington, D.C., in the Fords' case — for sunshine, warm temperatures and golf.
Of course Betty and Jerry Ford weren't your typical snowbirds. Gerald Ford had just ended his two years as president of the United States, with Betty serving as first lady. But they Fords were still following a familiar path to the Coachella Valley that had been blazed by entertainers, corporate presidents and CEOs and even a previous Republican president.
Twenty years before the Fords moved into Thunderbird Country Club, President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, began visiting the desert. Eventually the Eisenhowers established a part-time home at Eldorado Country Club in Indian Wells.
Eisenhower, perhaps the most famous of presidential golfers, had a putting green installed at the White House, was a member at famed Augusta National, and enjoyed the desert's golf lifestyle. He even made his only hole in one at Seven Lakes Country Club in Palm Springs, and he often made appearances at the PGA Tour event hosted by his friend Bob Hope.
It was that tournament that helped raise the initial funds for the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and continues to fund that hospital.
The Fords followed a nearly identical path to the Coachella Valley, Gerald Ford said in an interview for the book, “50 Years of Hope,” a history of the desert's PGA Tour event. The Fords had been visiting the desert on vacations with friends for years, even staying at the Rancho Mirage estate of Ambassador Walter Annenberg, known as Sunnylands and featuring a nine-hole golf course. Ford lost his election bid in 1976 to Jimmy Carter. That's when the Fords started looking for a new home.
“We used to come here during Easter vacation and rent a condo and play golf for a week,” Gerald Ford recalled. “When we left the White House, we looked at Florida, but it was too damp for Mrs. Ford's arthritis. We looked at Pebble Beach. Again it was too damp and too windy. And we'd been coming here, we had friends here. So with the climate and friends, it seemed a good place.”
Just as the Eisenhowers had done 20 years earlier, the Fords became part of the desert social scene. Betty Ford helped to establish the internationally known Betty Ford Center for addiction treatment, while Gerald Ford mixed in appearances and speeches with golf and his annual appearances as a player and later as a trophy presenter at the Bob Hope tournament.
Other presidents enjoyed the desert's mix of high-profile friends and golf, including Ronald Reagan. Reagan was a frequent guest at Annenberg's estate. But it was Ford who put his golfing prowess on public display at the Hope tournament, even though his wife Betty never took to the game.
Gerald Ford was also part of a day that may have been the pinnacle of presidential golf in the desert and a day that planted the seeds for recent news of presidents and desert golf. On Feb. 15, 1995, Ford played in a traditional opening-day round in the Hope tournament with Hope and defending tournament champion Scott Hoch at Indian Wells Country Club. The pairing also included sitting President Bill Clinton and former President George H.W. Bush. The round marked the first time a sitting president had played in a PGA Tour event and was the first time three presidents had appeared in Hope's event.
Sixteen years after that famous round, Clinton returned as a figure in desert golf. His William J. Clinton Foundation became part of the reshaping of the Hope tournament into the Humana Challenge. The Clinton Global Initiative will have a working relationship with the tournament starting in January 2012, and Clinton will follow Eisenhower and Ford in playing an active part in tournament activities during the week.
From Eisenhower to Ford to Clinton, the desert's special mix of great weather and golf continues to be a magnet for some of the most high-profile and powerful figures in the country's history.
