Friday, Sep. 18, 2009

Golf reveals style of leadership

I saw a video recently of President Obama on the driving range, hitting balls before a round of golf.

As I watched, I realized he had a swing that would fit in very nicely with the Grand Strand Swingers, the group with which I play most every Tuesday.

He grounded a few, sliced a few and hit a few long and straight. Yeah, he'd fit right in.

I didn't realize Obama, known to be the first basketball-playing president, cared much about golf.

Apparently, he loves the game and finds it more relaxing than basketball. He joins a long list of presidents since Dwight Eisenhower to occasionally chase the little white ball (excluding Jimmy Carter).

Richard Wolfe, in his book "Renegade," about the Obama campaign for the presidency, wrote that early on a friend tried to talk Obama out of running for president with the suggestion that they would be able to spend more time in Hawaii, playing golf. (OK, I know what I would have done with that choice, but, hey, I'm no Obama.)

In an article about the president's golfing habits, Time reporter Michael Scherer said Obama has played golf virtually every weekend since hot weather hit Washington, D.C. His handicap is estimated to be between a 16 and a 24, and he records every shot and is loath to take offered gimmes or mulligans.

"I've never seen him get to the point where he just picks up," a longtime golfing partner said. "I've seen him put down a 10. I've seen him put down an 11."

Wellington Wilson, another longtime golfing buddy, told Scherer, "You can really tell a person's personality by the way he plays," and said Obama plays the way he governs.

"He just goes with the flow," Wilson said. "Not too high. Not too low."

I don't expect I or my Grand Strand Swinger friends will ever get to play with the president, but a few years ago I did get to play with a former vice president, a guy named Dan Quayle.

Quayle would have Obama for lunch on a golf course. He played college golf and did not seem to have lost much.

Playing at the Dunes Club with two of the Gatlin brothers, Rudy and Steve, Quayle got off to a shaky start using borrowed clubs but quickly put it together, carding a birdie on the par 5 fifth hole after hooking his tee shot into the woods.

Quayle, like Obama, was a golf purist in his own right.

On the first hole, when the two Gatlins agreed to "roll 'em in the fairway" - meaning improve the ball's lie - Quayle was aghast.

"Roll 'em in the fairway?" he said in feigned shock. "We're not gonna roll 'em in the fairway. We're not playing Clinton golf."