"I golf more than you now TW."
In my endless googling and wondering around golf cyberspace I saw an article on Obama golfing in Hawaii today. I’m sure his gig is pretty stressful, so blowing off some steam and chasing a little white ball around is probably good for him, and thus the rest of us.
It is a bit hypocritical though that he’s playing golf, enjoying the lifestyle and hanging around at the same country clubs which are owned and patronized by those evil rich people he villainizes and wants to bump up their taxes. I digress. That discussion is for another day, or for my other site Hooked On Politics (HOP).
Some media outlets are criticizing Obama for playing somewhere between 41-52 rounds of golf since becoming President. By my calculations that is 2.1 rounds per week month. I’m sure any critic of Obama will find some negative in that. I’m not saying it is right or wrong, just interesting.
So is 2.1 rounds of golf per week month a lot for a President? Who holds the record?
Obama beats Bush
Bush played 24 times during his Presidency. Obama eclipsed that mark in his 2nd year.
Ike Eisenhower is perhaps the most famous “golfing President” with his ties to Augusta National and the many rounds of golf he played there (45) with the likes of Bobby Jones. In fact, on #17 at Augusta there’s a large tree called the “Eisenhower Tree.” I spent some time under that tree last April.
As the story I heard goes, Ike asked the Augusta board to remove the tree and Chairman Clifford Roberts declared the president “out of order.”
But Ike isn’t the record holder for most presidential rounds of golf. The highest number for a president I found was 1,200 by Woodrow Wilson.
Call me Mr. President
So if I play about 100x per year, that is two times per week. That puts me right up there with Obama and Ike. Now if I could only log 45 rounds of golf at Augusta somehow. Something tells me I don’t quite have the pull Ike did. But hey, I run a golf blog. You never know.
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
Hey Tony,
Love the blog, but I think your calculations may be a bit off. Obama has been in office for more than two years (more than 100 weeks). So if he played 41-52 rounds since his presidency began, that’s only one round every two weeks or so, not 2.1 rounds a week. I think his swing might be better if he played twice a week.
Tony,
If he’s played 50 or so rounds in the two years since becoming President, isn’t that one round every two weeks? Far be it for me to defend anything he does but in the interests of mathematical accuracy…..
My math sucked last night. Thanks for the comments. That was clearly a case of “should have gone to bed instead of writing” last night.
No wonder I leave the scorekeeping to my buddies when I’m on the course. That average is about 2.1 per MONTH not WEEK.
DUH. Thanks for keeping me in line…
It is December 2010. If he’s been in office since January of 2009 (almost 2 years) and played 41-52 rounds of golf since becoming president…I’m not sure how becomes an average of 2.1 rounds of golf per week. Seems closer to .5 rounds per week.
I didn’t see the comments from others…sorry for beating a dead horse!
No problem Rob. At least that confirms between you and Simon and Ben that there are at least three people who actually “read” this blog!
The difference between Golf and Government is that, in golf, you can’t improve your lie…..
EliKent Golf Society
Obama is pretty much criticized for everything he does by my golf group- except his golf. Not only do most of my buds think the only time he isn’t hurting the country is when he is taking time off, it would be pretty hypocritcal for us to criticize him for that. I have logged (in GHIN) about 180 rounds since Obama came into office, and that doesn’t include scrambles, some multi-ball practice rounds, or the odd triple digit horror. I probably have logged the median number of rounds for our 35 players.
More concerning to me is what he wears on the golf course. He looks like Urkel with the high wasted shorts (cargo?), the high white socks, and the unbuttoned shirt. At least the shirt is tucked in. His friends all have their shirts out. He looks like a total chop.