President-Elect Obama: The New Golfer-In-Chief

Of the past 17 United States presidents, USA Today reports, 14 were golfers. Only Herbert Hoover, Jimmy Carter and Harry Truman were not golfers. Two bad presidents and one great one.

Whether Barack Obama will be a great or bad president will be decided over the next four - or perhaps eight - years. What we know now is that he's a mediocre golfer. But then, aren't most of us? President-elect Obama loves the game and enjoys himself on the course, and that's all any of us can ask of the game. As for the results? Well, the USA Today article about presidential golfers includes this:

... In June, after clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, Obama played golf in the Chicago area with a few campaign aides.

"They went to a golf course, and they swung golf clubs," campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs said on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "But I don't think it was real pretty."

You can catch a quick glimpse of President-elect Obama's golf swing in this YouTube clip taken from a Honolulu television station's newscast in early August, when Obama visited the state to see his grandmother.

Author Don Van Natta Jr. wrote a book entitled First Off the Tee about American presidents and golf. Van Natta concluded that Calvin Coolidge was the worst of the golfing presidents, and that John F. Kennedy was the best. There's no question that Dwight Eisenhower - an Augusta National member - was the most-dedicated golfer.

The USA Today article points out that the Army Navy Golf Club in Virginia grants honorary membership to U.S. presidents, so that's where we should expect to find President-elect Obama playing when the bug strikes.