Hampton's Artistry Evident When
Clinton Takes To The Links
SEAL OF APPROVAL:
Bob Hampton made this driver for President
Clinton, complete with Presidential seal. The club is made from a rare persimmon wood,
which can be treated with oils to avoid cracking.
By PAUL KENYON
Journal-Bulletin Sports Writer
April 2, 1995
Last year, Bob Hampton sent one of his hand-crafted golf clubs to
the White House. This year, he will be sending another to the U.S. Golf
Association Museum.
The clubs involved, both made by Hampton at his golf shop in East
Providence, are Bill Clinton models. That is, both have the President's signature
inscribed on the top of the heads (both clubs are drivers) and have the presidential seal
built into the base.
Hampton was commissioned to make a club for Mr. Clinton last year
by Arthur Coia, president of the Laborers' Union International. Hampton came up with the
design, taking the presidential seal and building it into in the base of the club, then using a carbon to help carve the President's signature on the club.
The original was presented to the President on his visit to Rhode
Island last November. Hampton made the presentation himself at the Convention Center. He
now has four photographs and two thank-you letters hanging in his store as mementos of his
five minutes with the President. "I can't tell you how overwhelming it is to meet the
President," Hampton says. "He had just finished giving a speech. The governor,
senators, the secret service, the head of the state police. All these people are waiting
for him and here I am talking to him. He took the club, said 'I like this' and started
swinging it. He was asking me about the swing weight.
"I didn't even know if I'd be able to talk
when I met him. But everything came out great. I even asked him if I could have his
autograph for me and my family, and he did it," Hampton said.
The President now is using Hampton's club. A photo in February's
Golf World magazine, when the President played in the PGA Tour's Bob Hope Classic, with
former Presidents Bush and Ford showed him swinging Hampton's driver.
Hampton was so thrilled by the experience he had meeting the
President that he built a three-wood using the same design and sent it to Mr. Clinton -
and got a second thank-you note in return. "Look at this," Hampton said,
pointing to the two letters he has framed in his shop. "The first
one starts 'Dear Robert'; on the second one, it's 'Dear Bob.' "
The U.S. Golf Association heard about the club. Hampton spoke with
David Fay, the USGA president. Fay asked if a club could be made for display in the USGA
Museum in Far Hills, N.J. Hampton was only too happy to comply. "They don't have a
president's club," Hampton said. "No one has ever made a
president's club in the history of golf. They have clubs that factories made and gave to a
president as a gift, but no one has ever made a club like this with the presidential seal
and the president' s signature on it. This is his club. The president's club. I didn' t
put my name on it. The president's name is the only name on it."
There will be one like that soon in the USGA Museum, courtesy of Bob Hampton.