tim rosaforte
obama’s special buddies trip
president barack obama may
not be like you and me, but
as it relates to golf, the most
powerful man in the world
loves a buddies trip like all of
us. on this president’s day
weekend, he treated himself
to the ultimate in golf experiences at the floridian golf &
Yacht club in palm city, fla.
the president clearly could
not get enough golf.
He played 27 on saturday, the last nine with butch
Harmon as his partner and
butch’s son, claude iii, walking alongside. butch and the
president won a nine-hole,
$2 nassau against club owner
Jim crane and close friend
milton carroll, with Harmon
birdieing nos. 7 and 8 and
obama making net par on the
par- 4 ninth for the win. afterward, obama hit balls in front
of cameras in Harmon’s golf
studio, had his setup modified and worked on his bunker
game until it was time for
dinner. He was on the course
for over eight hours.
turns out that was just a
warm-up. Yesterday, obama
finally had an opportunity to
coordinate schedules with
tiger woods and meet for
their first game. originally,
the plan was to meet at the
medalist gc, tiger’s club
less than 30 minutes from
the floridian in Hobe sound.
logistics and the cold weather
dictated that their first round
together was at the floridian,
where the president had been
encamped since friday night.
companying the president and
woods were outgoing u.s.
trade representative ron Kirk,
the former mayor of dallas,
and Jim crane, the floridian
owner who is also owner of
the Houston astros. crane,
a 3-handicap, wanted to play
the tips with woods, but they
moved up to join obama and
Kirk from the tees measuring
6,203 yards. they played fast
considering the cold and blustery conditions, making the
turn in just over two hours.
said. “they had a nice ca-
maraderie. there was a little
ribbing going on, and we had a
lot of fun. the president really
loves golf. You can tell he’s got
a lot of talent. He just needs
to play a little bit, but he never
gets enough time to play.”
“Just to see the interac-
tion between the two on the
range was pretty neat,” said
Harmon. “the president said
to tiger, ‘the last tournament
you played [the farmers in-
surance open, which woods
won by four strokes] was fun
to watch. it’s good to see you
play well again.’ You could tell
he meant it. it just wasn’t a
throw-it-out compliment.”
after 18 holes, woods
and obama collected $15
for their three-way nassau
bet and went their separate
ways—tiger to his car and the
president to the first tee for an
emergency nine. obama and
woods declined comment,
so crane spoke to the historic
day.
that was not the case at
the floridian. in 48 hours he
played 54 holes, 18 with tiger,
and had a lesson from the
Harmons, accompanied by a
handful of his closest friends.
it was the ultimate golf buddy
trip that only the president
could put together.
“we’re glad to have them
here. to have them play together in the same group was
just unbelievable, a lifetime
experience they may never be
able to get to do again,” crane
on his first hole sunday,
woods holed out from a
greenside bunker for birdie
and nearly drove the 14th
green from 378 yards. ac-
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