Did you think we were going to let the late Billy Graham go to his heavenly reward without a Palm Beach anecdote?

We’re not.

And, of course, it’s a golf story, related by a Graham biographer.

After John F. Kennedy defeated Graham’s pal Richard Nixon in the 1960 election, he invited the preacher-to-presidents down to Palm Beach for a round or two.

Round meaning golf, not alcohol.

During the game at the Palm Beach Country Club, Graham missed a putt.

“Kennedy said, jokingly, ‘Well, I thought you were a good golfer,’” wrote biographer Professor Grant Wacker of Duke Divinity School. “Graham rolled with it, replying, ‘I am when I’m not playing with the president of the United States.’”

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University of Georgia students are seen entering and leaving the main Library on the Athens campus on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez