Heroic tee-off

A faithful reader of Type Like The Wind (also a friend and former colleague at The Seattle Times) is glued to the television for the Masters golf tournament. Craig (“Smitty”) Smith sends the challenge below. Since this is the closest I will ever get to actually playing the game, I agreed to give it a whirl:

“Imagine who would be in your ‘dream foursome’ for golf. You count yourself, of course, then have to come up with three other people you would like to spend 6 hours with – 4 1/2 on the course and 1 1/2 in the grill having lunch or drinks. Players can be someone long gone or someone in the present such as Barack Obama. Male or female. Has to be a believable golfer, though, which means Mother Theresa doesn’t qualify.”

I’ll add another rule: No professional golfers. (So forget Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Tiger.)

Okay. Well. Hmmm. If Mother Theresa doesn’t count, I’m guessing the late, great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson doesn’t either, right? She’s always on my list of “people-I’d-meet-if-I-could.”

Other usual occupants of that list seem problematic too. Several of my heroes are not physically able to qualify–FDR, Helen Keller, Ray Charles.

Some have too much dignity to be exposed to a world in which pink and green pants are acceptable–Eleanor  Roosevelt; Martin Luther King, Jr., Louisa May Alcott, EB White, Abraham Lincoln.

Some would just be annoyed at the idea–Lyndon Johnson (“Ah’d rather be hunting.”); Frank Lloyd Wright (“Why are the greens so round? Can’t we get some rectangles in here?”).

So, on to my other heroes. I’d pick John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali and Johnny Carson.

I’m exhausted. This golf stuff is harder than it looks.

[Update: Smitty's picks: Teddy Roosevelt, Billy Crystal and former Sen. Bill Bradley.]