The late President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a lifelong golfer, has earned enshrinement into the World Golf Hall of Fame, recognizing the contributions that Eisenhower made to the game of golf. Which is great and very well deserved, of course, but it got me to thinking: We go a little too easy on our presidents when it comes to golf.

OK, sure, there are the media reports that have easy takes on presidential golf. We did it ourselves, breaking down Barack Obama's golf game and John McCain's experience with the game here. Political pundits use golf as a metaphor; George W. Bush took all kinds of grief, first for playing golf ("watch this drive!") and then for not playing golf. President Obama has played golf at least 11 times since taking office and has received both praise and criticism for his on-course habits.

Not to get all sociological here, but golf is a prism, a Rorschach blot for how we view our presidents. If we happen to like the president who's in office, golf is a necessary outlet for a man who's got a harder job than we could ever imagine. If we dislike the guy, he's a dilettante who's spending too much time working on his game and not enough on fixing the country. We also like to humanize our presidents; the fact that Gerald Ford used to brain spectators like a World War II sniper hurling Titleists somehow brought him down off the pedestal. (Well, Ford would've fallen off, but you know what I'm getting at.)

Here's the thing, though -- unless presidents beat themselves in that way, you can't get a good idea of what kind of golfers they really are. Ever played "client golf"? You know, sandbagging to letting the client win? Now imagine what it's like playing "presidential golf." Former presidents often laugh about how often they lose now that they're no longer in office. And current presidents get pretty much every single break you can imagine, and a few you wouldn't even offer your father.

So enough with the coddling. Hell with watching celebrities try to take on U.S. Open courses; I want to see how my president handles Winged Foot or Torrey Pines in championship conditions. I want to see how he drops a shot onto the 17th at Sawgrass, how he sticks the ball on the 12th at Augusta. You want to test your leader in crisis situations, see how he handles a knee-knocker of a putt with the night's entertainment on the line. A president who knocks 220-yard arrow-straight drives on the range doesn't impress me, but a president who can reach a long par 5 in two? Hail to the Chief, baby.

President Eisenhower named to World Golf Hall of Fame [PGA.com]