Presidents, like normal people, tend to seek in others what they admire about themselves. One thing is clear about President Barack Obama’s golf game: he clearly loves playing. In his first year as president, he’s played 25 rounds, as much as his predecessor George W. Bush played in two terms. The state of his game is more murky. Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Teacher Brady Riggs analyzed Obama’s swing last summer and gave it a big thumbs-up for a beginner, while other reports say the commander in chief has become the hacker in chief.
Elizabeth Williamson of The Wall Street Journal checks in with the most detailed article to date on the president’s golfing jones, interviewing teaching pros at the Vineyard Golf Club in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., where Obama played his vacation golf. The verdict? The president has a long way to go if he wants his golf prowess to equal his ability on the basketball court.
Postings by golf observers on the Web site Baller-in-Chief, which is primarily devoted to the president’s basketball game, posit a brutal answer: Mr. Obama has a golf handicap in the mid-20s, considered weak to average, and a cramped swing that’s not so pretty.
A recent anonymous posting on Golf.com comes from a golfer who claims to have caught some of the action: “I had the misfortune of being stuck in a group on the same course as the Prez and his buddies and watching them play one hole in the time it took our foursome to play 3 was painful. The only thing stopping us from telling them to pick it up was the incredibly large security detail he had with him.”
Williamson gets a couple good anecdotes from Vineyard Golf Club, including one teaching pro giving Obama an on-course bunker lesson (“Open the clubface more!”) and the Secret Service tapping range balls to make sure they didn’t contain hidden dangers.
The President keeps the game in perspective. Most days Obama does not win or lose more than a few dollars. The Father’s Day outing ended with Biden and Obama each collecting $2, though Biden paid for the hot dogs after the front nine. Wilson, who has been playing with Obama since 1999, keeps all his Obama winnings in an envelope, which he has promised as a college fund for Sasha and Malia. As of early July, the envelope contained $2.25.
Follow Celebrity Fashion Icon — Michelle Obama
For One Thing, Tiger Could Be Invincible
Copyright reserved by Ebayoyo.com
Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/golf-articles/barack-obamaamericas-official-golfer-1506089.html
