Public Recreations of Presidents
Two months into his presidency, the New York Times Magazine detailed Calvin Coolidge's habits, like waking up at 4:30 AM — not a typo — to take morning walks around the streets of D.C. Can you imagine a president just "walking around" the streets today?
Sometimes, these walks would be interrupted by people approaching the Commander-in-Chief uninterrupted and giving him a piece of their mind.
Not all of the president's early morning companions are expected. A number of individuals in Washington who failed by regular means to catch the presidential ear have abandoned the habits of a lifetime for a before-breakfast constitutional in the hope of running into the president.
Only a few days ago ago one of these unsought companions was a Middle Western senator, an undismayed patronage seeker, who accosted the president on the street and urged the appointment of one of his constituents who already had been denied one public office on the grounds of unfitness. Mr. Coolidge is reported to be annoyed by such stalking and is said to be considering abandoning his early morning walks or confining them in self-defense to the White House grounds.
The article also mentioned that Coolidge, unlike many of his recent predecessors and virtually all of his successors, didn't enjoy golf.
Unless they can find something sinful in walking, the voluntary censors of presidential relaxations must develop other obsessions if the White House mail is to remain normal, for neither the searchlights of photography nor the vacuum cleaning of news gathering have uncovered any habitual forms of outdoor sports in which the thirtieth president has indulged. A photograph of Mr. Coolidge standing over a golf ball would bring a higher market price than a Lincoln autograph.
According to this article from the Southern California Golf Association, ranking all golf-playing presidents by their handicap, Coolidge ranks among the worst of all time at 30+. For those of you who don't play golf and don't know what that means... suffice it to say that's really, really bad.
Public Recreations of Presidents
Published: Sunday, October 14, 1923