20 years after first taking up the game of golf in 1997 – due to basketball injuries – President Obama has worked hard to get his handicap down to "an honest 13," comparable to former golfing presidents as they left office (Nixon 12, Clinton 10, JFK 14).
However, there is one thing Obama has them all beat with – during his eight years in the White House he played a total of 306 rounds of golf, more than any other president since Dwight Eisenhower.
As The Telegraph reports, Mr Obama's passion for golf contrasted with that of his predecessor, George W. Bush, who played just 24 times in office. Mr Bush gave up entirely in 2003 because he felt images of him playing seemed insensitive while US soldiers were fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Other golfing presidents of the modern era, including John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, kept their habit away from the public eye as much as possible.
Mr Obama tried to do the same but, in an era when a president's movements are constantly documented, pictures proliferated of him pacing manicured greens studying a putt at inopportune moments of national crisis.
Towards the end of his second term it offered ballast for assertions that he had "checked out".
In the annals of US presidents Mr Obama's final tally of 306 rounds is high, but he was far outstripped by two other men.
President Dwight Eisenhower played an estimated 800 rounds in office, calling golf "the best game of them all".
And President Woodrow Wilson manged to fit in over 1,000 rounds between 1913 and 1921. Despite all his efforts his wife was a better player.
Last year US president -elect Donald Trump hammered Mr Obama for "playing more golf than Tiger Woods".
Mr Trump added: "We don’t have time for this. We have to work. I love golf, I think it’s one of the greats, but I don’t have time."
But the lure of the links is strong for all presidents, including Mr Trump. Weeks after his election victory Mr Trump was in Florida, playing golf with Tiger Woods. And there were photographs.
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And in case you did not believe us – here is the complete list of all 306 rounds…
via http://ift.tt/2jtCYTK Tyler Durden