Tales from the Trail

On the day after Christmas, President Barack Obama had an early morning conference call with national security advisers about the Northwest plane incident, went to the gym with his wife Michelle, went back to his Kailua holiday home and then… it was tee time!

Obama and four friends, yes that’s right a group of FIVE, went for 18 holes on the Kaneohe Klipper course at a nearby Marine Corps base.

Now for non-golf aficionados (like me) a foursome is the customary maximum for a golf  game. So five would raise some eyebrows in golfing circles.

But of course, there is also a long-standing tradition that the President of the United States gets to play the game any way he wants.

For example, there are stories that Bill Clinton, when he was president, apparently had a rule that he was allowed as many mulligans — or do-overs — as he wanted (some called it the billigan).

George H. W. Bush apparently liked to golf quickly and frowned upon people playing with him taking too many (if any) practice swings (that comes from someone with first-hand knowledge).

The golf course where Obama is playing has some rules of its own: no muscle shirts, cut-offs, swimsuits, bare midriffs, or slippers (for those who go straight from bed to the green?)

And a little history… holes 13, 14, and 15 are near sand dunes sacred to Hawaiians because that’s where ancient Hawaiians buried their dead.

Reporters didn’t actually see Obama on the golf course so we had to use a picture from the summer.

For more Reuters political news click here.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Obama on Martha’s Vineyard in August)