If Martin Luther King Jr. played golf: rated 90, best at course IQ

Martin Luther King Jr. as a golfer: scouting report

Martin Luther King Jr. would be one of the most complete golfers in this whole game, the kind of player who seems to know how the round will unfold before the first tee shot. Course IQ is the very top of his card. He entered Morehouse College at fifteen and later earned a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University, and that same scholarly mind would map out every hazard, every pin position and every wind shift.

His nerve is right behind it. He stood before a crowd of hundreds of thousands at the March on Washington in 1963 and delivered the I Have a Dream speech, and the following year he became the youngest person at the time to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. A golfer with that kind of composure does not get rushed on the final green. His putting is the best of his shotmaking skills, with his irons and short game level just behind, so there is no hole on any course where he is out of position. The steady discipline of the Montgomery bus boycott, which held for more than a year, shows the patience he would bring to a long final round.

Driving is the one place his card is merely solid rather than elite. He keeps the ball in the fairway but will not win long drive contests, so The Long Course Championship, which rewards raw distance, is his weakest week. The Links Open is his natural home, where patience, precise iron play and a calm mind in the wind decide the winner. He is a first round talent. Take him early, build around his short game and putting, and add a long hitter later to cover the one gap in an otherwise complete game.

Plays like A complete champion who out thinks and out lasts the field

Put Martin Luther King Jr. in your lineup

5 rolls, a team of five, four majors. Can you win the Grand Slam? Free, no account.