They don't call me a great man
for nothing.
In fact, they charge me quite a bit!
Apparently, Bret Baier hadn't heard that European airspace was closed because of that volcano with the name nobody can pronounce. I suppose Obama could have commandeered a battleship to get to Europe, but I'm not sure Mr. Baier would have wanted to have a tax hike to cover the cost of the trip. 32 RoundsMr. Obama has golfed 32 times since he took office. Dubya golfed only 24 times during his 8 years in office. Blondie wishes that Dubya had golfed every day for those eight years. Ike Eisenhower played more than 800 rounds of golf in his two years in office - that'd be about two rounds a week. He probably did more to popularize the game than any other American. When he took office, there were 3 million golfers in the US, and when he turned over the keys to the White House to JFK, there were 6 million golfers. They even elected him to the World Golf Hall of Fame last year. All Work And No Play Is No BargainAnd if you think about it, the three most successful presidents in the last half of the 20th century were Ike, Dutch Reagan, and Bill Clinton. Ike spent all his time golfing, Reagan slept through cabinet meetings, and Clinton was playing with Monica. On the other hand, the two least successful presidents during that period were Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, both of whom had stellar IQs (Carter, if you recall, was a nuclear engineer) and both of whom were extremely busy trying to get things accomplished. Now, I don't think being brilliant is a liability - certainly Dubya proved that being a dullard is no asset - but I don't object to Mr. Obama playing golf or shooting hoops. He can do all of that he wants to, as far as I'm concerned. And if he wants to take up skeet shooting, that might not be a bad idea, just in case Mr. Cheney comes a-calling. Being John DalyThe last episode of the season of "Being John Daly" just aired. If you haven't seen the show, you might want to catch repeats. It's not a compelling show, by any means. No Bullitt chase scenes, nobody's shooting at anybody, there's not even any yelling like you find on most reality shows, unless you count John being down on himself. Since he slimmed down, he doesn't have the weight to power drives as far as he used to, and without a belly to steady his arms on, his putting has really deteriorated. At one point, it's telling himself (and we overhear him) saying that he really ought not be competing, taking a slot away from someone who might be a better player. In the last episode, he says every golfer has been as discouraged as that, but they don't say that to a cable network of viewers. It's a calm show featuring a nice guy who's trying to put his life back together. He's paid off the casinos, and the only monkey still on his back is back taxes owed the IRS, but his accountant says that as long as he is honest with them, they'll work with him to get the taxes paid off. Oh, and he still drinks a little, and he smokes too much, but his girlfriend seems like a very nice lady. Golf Without A TicketSince he no longer has a PGA "ticket", he only gets to play in tournaments when the tournament directors offer him an exemption. He mailed out a lot of requests at the start of the series, and while he didn't get as many invites back as he would have liked, a number of directors replied saying "Not this year - but we'll take another look next year." You can't blame them for being a little skeptical - but he seems to be winning over more and more of them. This week, he plays in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, one of the tournaments that was wasn't initially eager to have him. "But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself." John Daly plays blues guitar, rather than rock-and-roll, but he thinks like Ricky Nelson did. I'm a fan of both. Other Bloggers On Related Topics: |
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Round One: Par
The Golf Channel's coverage of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans - also known as TPC Louisiana - ran from 3 PM to 6 PM today. It was 5:45 when they showed John Daly for the first time, on his last hole, a par 3. He started on the back nine, so the last of 18 holes was actually the 9th hole. John hit a nice one, which put him in position to birdie the hole.
Daly was partnered with Sergio Garcia, a player who used to be get penalized for delay of play because he suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder. He had a regular procedure he performed before shooting, sorta like you put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, you dance the hokey-pokey and you shake it all about, before he would actually swing at the ball. He doesn't do that any more.
On the other hand, he didn't like his first shot, not at all. He walked over to the side, shaking his head from side to side, then did a one-handed swing of his golf club and threw it into the swamp. Whups. Maybe I oughtn't have done that. He went slinking off into the swamp and emerged a few seconds later with his club.
I don't know if I'd have done that. They'd been showing some fairly good sized gators swimming around earlier on. You might head into the swamp and walk out minus a leg or two. But he didn't have any trouble with that.
John putted for birdie, and missed by what appeared to be three feet. He putted again, for par, and missed again. His next putt made it into the hole, for a birdie. He started on the back 9, and scored a 1-under 35, hit a 1-over 37, ending the day at even par. That's not good enough to set the world on fire, tied for 60th, not when leader Jason Bohn has a seven-under for the day but it's 10 strokes better than 153rd-place Tim Wilkinson.
I don't know that being paired with Sergio Garcia helped his game today. but at this point, John isn't trying to win the tournaments, he's trying to be a consistent contender that will get exemptions to all the tournaments next year. And maybe being shown as the sane one, next to Sergio, is exactly what will get the attention of tournament directors.