Marcos Called Golf Cheat

Ferdinand E. Marcos, the deposed Philippine president, is not only accused of falsifying his World War II record and looting his country’s economy. He also cheated at golf.

That, at least, is the contention of one of Marcos’ former golf partners, M.J. (Dindo) Gonzalez, who writes a column on the sport for the Manila newspaper Business Day.

“His game was the mediocre, run-of-the-mill type that carried a handicap of around 18 strokes,” wrote Gonzalez, who first played with him in the early 1950s. He said he played with Marcos frequently until a couple of years after Marcos was first elected president in 1965, but that Marcos “could not have improved much since his form was not according to the known fundamentals.”

After Marcos became president, Gonzalez wrote, he acquired a worldwide reputation as a low-handicap player. However, one of the ways he did this was by allowing his caddies to lower his scores on the cards, the columnist said.

In addition, his bodyguards “kept the ball not only in play, but, I suspect, also kicked it nearer the hole after a shot. Thus, Marcos’ handicap dropped from 14 to 10, and he became known as the chief executive with the lowest handicap in the world.”