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!

Update on 2013-02-18 16:35 by Geoff

**Rosaforte with more details about the weekend in Golf World Monday, including Obama complimenting Tiger on his recent win after apparently having watched the dreadfully slow Monday finish. Hopefully it was the edited Golf Channel replay.

Tiger And Obama Hit The Links

Golf World's Tim Rosaforte is holed up in the Floridian clubhouse Tweeting updates.

Here is a story from The Hill reporting on the round that also includes Jim Crane, Houston Astros owner.

Ike: "Golf was essential to his daily routine."

Barack Obama played his first round of golf since August but after reading Evan Thomas' golf.com excerpt from Ike's Bluff, the President has a long way to go when it comes to matching the Oval Office's greatest golf nut.

We all know about President Eisenhower's 800 rounds, but there was all this...

Golf was essential to his daily routine. When he awakened in the morning, he limbered up by taking a few swings in his bedroom with his favorite eight-iron.

He sometimes swung the club when dictating to Mrs. Whitman. At 5:00 p.m. he would rise from Teddy Roosevelt’s old Navy Department desk in the Oval Office, put on his golf shoes, and head out the door, leaving tiny spike holes in the floorboards. On the Ellipse, the greensward stretching south from the White House toward the Washington Monument, he would practice fairway approach shots. His faithful valet (or as he was known in military parlance, his striker), Sergeant John Moaney, would shag the balls while tourists peered through the iron fence.

2016 Presidential Hopefuls: Hit The Links!

Emily Kay does a nice job examining the most stunning Presidential electoral trend of all...pols who play golf in some form, at some point and in some way, stand a better chance of moving into the White House. (Thanks reader Todd.)

    •    1980: Ronald Reagan (golfer) defeats Jimmy Carter (non-golfer)
    •    1984: Ronald Reagan defeats Walter Mondale (non-golfer)
    •    1988: George H.W. Bush (golfer) defeats Michael Dukakis (non-golfer)
    •    1992: Bill Clinton (golfer) defeats George H.W. Bush
    •    1996: Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole (non-golfer)
    •    2000: George W. Bush (golfer) defeats Al Gore (non-golfer)
    •    2004: George W. Bush defeats John Kerry (non-golfer)
    •    2008: Barack Obama (golfer) defeats John McCain (non-golfer)
    •    2012: Barack Obama defeats Mitt Romney (the anti-golfer)

Update on 2012-11-07 21:46 by Geoff

**Following on this theme, Ron Sirak makes the case that golf can bridge political differences.

No matter where you stand on the political scale -- the left side, the right, or somewhere in between -- the nation now, with so many challenges ahead, needs to find a balance. I'm not smart enough to know where the balance resides, but I am willing to trust that both the Democrats and Republican have people smart enough and noble enough to find it.

Golf gives us a perfect road map to follow. Presidents Eisenhower and Ford were both passionate golfers and they were both Republicans. Presidents Clinton and Obama, both Democrats, share that passion.

Jack: Presidential Election Will Determine Recovery Of Stalled Golf Course Construction Industry

Art Stricklin reports that Jack and Barbara Nicklaus will make more appearances in Ohio for Mitt Romney leading up to the November 6, 2012 election. 

Nicklaus told those gathered at the opening of his new Summit Rock course in Horseshoe Bay, Texas that the future of the golf course construction industry is dependent on the presidential election results.

"It all depends on who is elected next Tuesday," Nicklaus said Tuesday during the opening of Summit Rock, his new course in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, just west of Austin. "It will take longer if the wrong guy is elected."

Presidential Debate As Match Play

Thomas Friedman, well-known golf nut, in his Sunday New York Times column:

For weeks, Romney had performed so badly and had fallen so far behind in swing states that if this campaign were a Ryder Cup singles match, you’d have said the president felt he had the match in the bag with just a few holes left to play. So he did the worst thing you can do in match play golf: he started playing not to lose. He continued with an uninspired, vague and cautious campaign and just waited for Romney to keep hitting balls out of bounds. Romney, his back to the wall, had no choice but to start aggressively playing to win.

'WeAreGolf" Urging Politicians To Stop Criticizing Obama’s "Passion for golf"

The Daily Caller's Matt Lewis reports that pro-golf lobby group called “WeAreGolf” is urging Senator Marco Rubio to refrain from criticizing Barack Obama’s “passion for golf."

“As we enter the final stretch of campaign season,” the group writes, “we write to make a request we hope you will receive in the same spirit in which it is offered. Please reconsider your political strategy of criticizing President Obama’s passion for golf.” (Emphasis theirs.)

Lewis notes that the call is not just limited to Rubio.

It’s unclear how many other elected officials have received similar letters, but  the group says they are “asking all elected officials to abstain from political strategies and tactics that denigrate golf, directly or indirectly, because we think they’re unnecessary and undermine the industry at large, not just the individual target.”

WeAreGolf is led by the Club Managers Association of America, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, the PGA of America and the National Golf Course Owners Association.

Update on 2012-09-18 19:46 by Geoff

**From We Are Golf spokesman David Marin:

We Are Golf’s request for a political cease-fire when it comes to golf is not aimed at Sen. Rubio, who’s been a great supporter of the industry, but at all elected officials, Republicans and Democrats. Similar letters have previously gone to members of both political parties.

The golf is industry is understandably sensitive to this line of politicking, because it reinforces misperceptions of the game that don’t square with the facts – and because those misperceptions, in turn, have led to unfair legislation and regulation. How else to explain, for example, golf’s exclusion, along with massage parlors and liquor stores, from post-Katrina disaster tax relief?

We’re not asking for special treatment; just fair and equitable treatment. And part of that is respectfully asking for a bipartisan political détente.

We get the context, the political calculus. But we no longer want to sit idly by when golf is maligned, even indirectly, because we’ve seen what can happen when we do so, and the nearly 2 million Americans whose jobs depend on the golf industry are asking us to get involved on their behalf.

The Range That Lets You Hit Romney And Obama

Linda Chion Kenney visits Brandon, Florida's Ace Golf range where hackers can hit shots at huge head shots of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.

The promotion was thought up by owner Bill Place, who even placed the photos based on his analysis of the candidates' positions.

"I guess some are shooting at them and some are shooting for them," Place said. "They can shoot in whatever direction they please. Some people like to shoot way off to the left and some people like to shoot in the right direction."

Either way, he added, "it gets people talking about the candidates."

As for Place, his allegiances are not hard to determine.

"I got to choose the pictures," he said. "I have to say that Romney's is probably a little more flattering. We put him a little right of center, which is where I thought [Bill] Clinton was, who I actually supported for president. I put Obama out in left field, where he belongs, in my view."