Q&A: JON HAMM by Martin Kaufmann Don Draper gets to smoke (indoors!), drink (during work!), eat red meat (every day!) and cheat on his wife (routinely!). OK, admittedly, the last one isn’t an admirable quality, but the rest probably make Draper sound like the kind of guy you’d like to have in your Saturday morning four-ball. So it’s probably not surprising that Jon Hamm, a golf junkie from St. Louis, jumped at the chance to play the lead role of Draper in “Mad Men,” an AMC series that launched last week. Hamm, 36, grew up playing on a nine-hole course built by his grandfather and others in St. Genevieve, Mo., after World War II. “We would go around that course four or five times a day,” Hamm recalls. He nursed his golf habit when he moved to Los Angeles, where he has knocked around in various supporting roles on TV. “Mad Men,” the brainchild of “Sopranos” executive producer Matt Weiner, figures to be Hamm’s big break. In it, he plays a 1960 creative savant at Sterling Cooper, a fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency. The series is getting the kind of reviews that would make the most cynical adman blush. Golfweek recently talked golf with TV’s newest “Mad Man.” GW: Do you get to play much golf? JH: I played a lot more when I first moved to California. I lived in a house with four other guys, all of whom golfed, and all of whom were unemployed. Every day we’d look at each other and say, “What are we going to do?” So we’d go out and play 27 holes a day four or five days a week. I still can’t putt to save my life. And I don’t play enough now that I actually work. GW: Does being a golfer help you get work in Hollywood? JH: I would think it does. Everybody does it out here. If you are at any of the west-side clubs – Bel Air or Brentwood or Hillcrest – on any given day you’re going to run into five, six, 10 (entertainment industry) people. GW: Are we going to see Don Draper on the golf course during the series? JH: They wrote it into one of the scripts, and I thought, “Awesome,” because it would be great to hit with persimmon woods since that’s what I learned on. Now I can’t imagine addressing a ball with a persimmon wood. It would be like trying to hit a ball with a cue tip given the size of the drivers now. But I remember the feeling of hitting a ball square, especially a balata ball, and it was like you didn’t even hit it. They cut the scene out of the script because it would have been too expensive to set up production on course for one day. . . . But I’d love to get dressed up in the classic ’50s gear, smoke cigarettes and play golf, channel a little Arnold Palmer. GW: Don Draper cheats on his wife. Would he cheat at golf? JH: I know I don’t cheat at golf, so I’m going to say he won’t cheat at golf. I think there’s a personal morality that everybody has. You could find some of the most ruthless, meanest businessmen in the world that would do anything to get ahead that will somehow make it their personal morality to never cheat at golf. I’ve met those people. They are unscrupulous at everything they do, and yet they will take their lumps on the course. I think it’s because the rules are so specific. The ball’s either in bounds or out of bounds. It’s either in the hazard or it’s not. You either have to take a two-stroke penalty or you don’t. . . . So I think Don’s personal morality would make him follow the rules on the course. GW: If Don Draper were playing golf with a potential client, would he throw the match to win the business? JH: That was actually one of the plot points. I end up making a putt in the scene that was cut, and the young guy who handles the clients starts to line up his putt. And I say, “You know you’re going to miss this, right?” And he says, “What do you mean?” I say, “You’re not going to win. What’s wrong with you?” And he says, “Well, you made your putt.” And I said, “I’m creative. They want me to win. I’m supposed to look like I can do no wrong. You have to tank it.” GW: If the show’s a hit, will you parlay it into invitations to all the best golf clubs? JH: I hope so! I love being out there. Especially out here there are so many great golf courses, and you find yourself six or seven holes in and you look around at the beautiful natural state and think, “What’s better than this?” Source: http://www.golfweek.com/lifestyles/.../jonhamm_feature_072307