FOREPLAY

THE GOLF INDUSTRY gets a boost in its public favorability ratings and at the cash register every time a president of this country is pictured playing golf.

John Q. Public reads in newspapers or magazines that the President is playing golf at Farm Neck Golf Clubto get away from the pressures of being Top Dog, the Commander in Chief, THE President….and John Q. thinks….. it should work for me, too! Fifteen of the last 18 presidents have used this on-course challenge as a legitimate getaway. From President Eisenhower (played almost every day during his two-terms!) to President Bush (a “speed golfer”), the golf course has kept them relatively sane and sober. A backlash, however, is now brewing over Mr. Obama’s love of the game of golf which he plays more frequently than do most Golf Industry people. (Yes, we’re jealous!) The week before Memorial Day, Obama reportedly played four golf games in six days, giving ammunition to those Gulf Coast residents who had been waiting very patiently for more than 40 days for concrete evidence of help and leadership on the BP disaster. With a nascent Nuclear Iran and Crazy North Korean Kim also on the front burners, not to mention who offered what to Sestak, our President is grabbing as much “getaway” time as possible these days. The conundrum for the people of this country is: does the President take too much time away from the heavy burden (piling higher by the day, it seems!) he assumed upon his election? Some people, however, may look upon his time on the golf course as being manna from the heavens above, in that the more time he spends on a golf course translates into less time Obama spends in the White House which, depending on one’s political views, is good or bad….