NY Times White House Reporter: "According to accounts from Mr. Rosaforte, who emerged as the best source of information."

/

Jackie Calmes of the NY Times and sequestered White House press corps tries to piece together Barack Obama's all-golf weekend and admits to relying on Golf World's Tim Rosaforte for most information from The Floridian where the President played with Tiger Woods Sunday.

Mr. Obama arrived for Sunday’s game well-practiced and primed for 36 holes, according to accounts from Mr. Rosaforte, who emerged as the best source of information. While the small pool of White House reporters and photographers remained out of sight, restricted to a bus just inside the resort’s iron gates and reliant on Mr. Earnest for sparse details, Mr. Rosaforte apparently was allowed access to the grounds and the elite group.

“The president loves his golf,” he reported on the Golf Channel after Saturday’s long outing.

Mr. Obama played 18 holes on Saturday, broke for lunch and then went straight to a driving range for practice with the Harmons, Mr. Rosaforte said. Nine more holes followed, with the team of Mr. Obama and Butch Harmon winning and “taking a couple bucks off” the others, Mr. Rosaforte added, and then Mr. Obama headed to the Harmons’ Learning Center “and beat balls for almost an hour.”

The coaches said they had instructed Mr. Obama on “pretty simple stuff,” Mr. Rosaforte said, like advising the left-handed president on how to better align his right shoulder when he swings.

“The president,” he added, “walked over to say that Butch had given him a couple things to work on — big smile on his face.”

Since the White House has released no images from the day, we'll just go with the Golf Digest cover posted at GolfDigest.com for the most accurate representation of the day.

Rosie also did his best Christiane Amanpour impression, hunkered down in a dark room as bombs went off in the background, telling an MSNBC anchor about the day. Other than the guy calling him Jim at one point instead of Tim, I'd say it was a big day in golf press history!

Tiger And The Stock Market, Redux

/

Nice post by Sam Weinman on the bizarro parallel lines between Tiger winning and the stock market's performance.

Buy, buy, buy!

A coincidence? Probably. But as Gary Kaminsky, the Capital Markets Editor for CNBC, said, "If you want to draw some conclusions, stock market participants who are avid golf fans become more aggressive and optimistic in thinking about their investments when Tiger wins a tournament."

Of course, as Kaminsky noted, the Nasdaq's rapid rise was more attributable to enthusiasm around tech stocks than it was Woods' superior ball-striking and clutch putting. But what's interesting is that the pattern has continued into this more unpredictable phase of Woods' career.

Tiger On All Cylinders: "I've driven the ball well, I've hit my irons well, and I've chipped and putted well."

/

Having watched him a fair amount but much less than some of my peers, Tiger's game looks as complete as it has since, well, you know when.

He has a six stroke lead with ten holes to play in Monday's Farmers Insurance Open.

Broadcast times are as follows:11 am PT on Golf Channel, 1 pm ET on CBS. And streaming live for the office workers of America.

Rocco On Tiger's Swing: "It doesn't produce the shots he used to hit"

/

Steve DiMeglio looks at the state of Tiger's game and also features a nice mini-retrospective of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines where Woods dueled with Rocco Mediate.

Four-plus years later, Mediate still is in awe of Woods but has questions about the state of his mechanics.

" … "I love what Tiger has done for the game... I've always had a ridiculous amount of respect for what he has done. All the crap on the other side I don't care about. I don't know what happened; only he knows what happened."

Mediate says something else happened – to Woods' swing. While the jury is still out on whether Woods can again become the dominant force in golf, Mediate is a tad skeptical.

"Nothing he did ever surprised me. He's that good. But he can't do it anymore because his golf swing is different. It doesn't produce the shots he used to hit," Mediate says. "Do I think he's finished winning majors? No. Does he have as much desire? Yes. But you could ask him to hit any shot blindfolded back in the day and he could. Now he can't. I know what I'm seeing. I know what I saw before. And it's not the same.

" … I know the things outside of golf hurt him immensely, and the injuries have hurt him ... If he does find the swing again, it's game over.

Tiger On Getting Out Of California, Anchoring, Torrey

/

A few highlights from today's Tiger Woods press conference at the Farmers Insurance Open. Looking as fit as ever, Woods answered questions from the assembled slingers and local TV newshounds.

Q.  Slightly different topic here.  Phil Mickelson made some comments regarding the higher taxes here in California.  You being a resident now of Florida, but from here, any comment or any reaction to what he said?

TIGER WOODS:  Well, I moved out of here back in '96 for that reason.  I enjoy Florida, but also I understand what he was, I think, trying to say.  I think he'll probably explain it better and in a little more detail.

Looks like Jerry West has more lobbying to do on getting Tiger back to Riviera for the Northern Trust Open:

Q.  Just wanted to check in on your immediate schedule going forward.  What tournaments you are going to be playing in, and specifically with the Northern Trust Open, whether you're playing or not, or still undecided?  I wanted to know what your thought process is in whether or not you play that one?

TIGER WOODS:  I'm going to play a few tournaments coming up.

Q.  Which one next?

TIGER WOODS:  I don't know.

Q.  What will it take for you to play Rivera again?

TIGER WOODS:  I don't know.  We'll just see.

Is that a non-denial denial? Or just a denial denial?

On anchoring...

Q.  With the player meeting tonight and the anchoring ban being discussed, have you ever kind of reflected on how anchoring has impacted the game in terms of your career, in terms of winning certain events and without naming names, obviously, but do you ever feel you've been deprived of some wins because you putt in a conventional way and there was somebody putting using anchoring?

TIGER WOODS:  No.  I'm not going to look at it like that.  Generally, in the past if guys switch methods, it's usually because they're uneasy, they're a little twitchy or just don't feel comfortable, so they'll switch methods.

But we have a whole other generation that have never experienced having those twitches or having any of those type of problems, and they've grown up with anchoring the putter.

And I think that's what Mike was trying to explain when he was trying to implement this new rule is that we're getting a whole 'nother generation that have only putted with anchoring the putter, and they've just learned that one method.  He believes every club should actually swing, and I agree with that.

After talking about his memories of the unforgettable 2008 U.S. Open, he was asked about Torrey and another Open. I'm not sure if he knows it's off the USGA's radar.

Q.  Your thoughts on the U.S. Open ever coming back to Torrey, and are you in favor of that?

TIGER WOODS:  Absolutely, absolutely.  I think they've proven that they can host a great U.S. Open here.  We, as players, play here each and every year, and we love the golf course.  It's hard.

And I think the USGA is trying to make a concerted effort ever since '02 going to Bethpage for the first time and big public venues.  This is the west coast version.  And it was amazing.  The turnout, the fans, the support, the crowds, I mean, it was just a great atmosphere.

I think with having the other golf course right here for parking and all that, I think certainly I think Torrey Pines and everyone here involved in it really made this tournament special, and I think the USGA will definitely come back.

Pssst...that's a negative!

On a serious note, I'm still trying to figure out how to word this question of Tiger: do you want to see the U.S. Open return here one more time before you are, uh, uh,

Video: Even Tiger Cold Tops One Now And Then...

/

Thanks to reader Brian for the video link to this shot during first round play at Abu Dhabi. The shot was hit from the first tee (his tenth hole) during opening round play in the 2013 HSBC Golf Championship.

According to Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker it went 200 yards.

Watch it before the inevitable copyright claim.

Forget The Tiger-Visiting-Lindsey-Vonn-In-Salzburg-Business, What's With The Yankees Cap?

/

If you are really bored you can translate this Salzburger Nachrichten story (with photos) of Tiger Woods arriving in Salzburg Sunday to (A) visit Mozart's birthplace (B) continue his ongoing tour to visit all of the filming locations for The Sound of Music or (C) visit the sister of his kids' ski instructor and Olympic skiier, Lindsey Vonn.

All of the explanations work for me. I guess you could throw in the beautiful weather this time of year, too.

What doesn't work, as a Dodgers fan who was under the impression that Tiger was a devoted Dodgerphile, is the Yankees cap.