Why Doesn't Obama Take More Of An Interest In Golf?

I mean this seriously. He has played over a hundred rounds of golf since his swearing in. That's a lot of golf. Yet, he doesn't appear to be a fan of golf at all. This is odd for someone that plays as often as he does.

Bill Clinton was famous for his love of watching and attending PGA events. Buzz Patterson's book Dereliction of Duty describes some of this, ahem, passion.

I approached President Clinton on three occasions at this golf tournament, Roger, to ask him for the go-ahead to launch this attack. We had Air Force fighters in the air, ready to drop bombs and to repel Saddam’s forces, and on three occasions, President Clinton could not be bothered to take the phone call from Sandy Berger. So, on three occasions I approached the President, he brushed me off—he wanted to watch the golf tournament. So I saw, really, for the first time, the dereliction of duty, as it were, by President Clinton not being able—not being willing to take the phone call while thousands and thousands of Kurds were being slaughtered by Saddam Hussein.

Entering the final day, the Americans were four points down, a huge margin to make up. But they had been given a pep talk by the then Governor of Texas, George W Bush, who had read out the “no surrender” address from the Battle of the Alamo. It was so belligerent that David Duval stormed out of the locker room shouting, “Let’s go out and kill them.” The Americans duly staged an almighty comeback and it all came down to the 17th green. The US player Justin Leonard nailed a monster 45ft putt, which prompted his team-mates, their wives and caddies to rush on to the green and high-five each other, dressed in their ludicrous maroon uniforms that made them look like they worked at a cut-price pizza joint. They had forgotten that José Maria Olazábal, the Spaniard, had yet to finish his game. Olazábal, looking flustered, missed his putt and America won the Ryder Cup.

This is hardly some game-changing issue. It's just... very odd.

posted by JohnE. at 11:38 AM

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