President Barack Obama is an avid golfer and during his President's Day vacation on Sunday, he played golf with world-class athlete Tiger Woods.
According to ESPN.com, the White House said that President Obama and Woods played on Sunday at the Floridian, which is an exclusive yacht club with golf at Florida's Treasure Coast. Obama is spending the weekend in the area for Presidents Day vacation and it marked the first time the two have played golf together, although they had previously met.
President Obama is spending a relaxing weekend of vacation and the White House has prevented any media of reporting on the golf round.
The group that played with Obama included Woods as well as Jim Crane, a Houston businessman who owns the golf club and the Houston Astros, and the soon to be outgoing U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest.
"Well, when you get to play with the President and Tiger Woods in the same round, that's one that doesn't happen every day and it might not happen again," Crane told MLB.com. "It was a lot of fun. The President was very cordial, and Tiger had a lot of fun and hit some great shots. We had a lot of fun."
There was news earlier last week from Golf Digest that said that Obama spent eight hours on Saturday working on his game with Butch Harmon, Woods' former swing coach. He played 27 holes and hit balls with Harmon before playing the rounds with Woods. The report says that the two originally were going to play at Woods' home club, but instead they went to the Floridian.
Woods played the first part of the day with Obama for 18 holes, but left the President afterwards as he played another nine on the course. The pair have met previously but never played golf together, including when they met in January at the presidential inauguration.
"Just to see the interaction between the two on the range was pretty neat," Harmon told Golf Digest. "The President said to Tiger: 'The last tournament you played was fun to watch. It's good to see you play well again.' You could tell he meant it. It just wasn't a throw-it-out compliment."
Woods also met the president in the oval office in April after the inauguration and after the sex scandal came out about the golfer, Obama said in an interview on Fox News Channel that Woods still will be a "terrific" golfer. The President is taking a long vacation while Florida while First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha are on a ski vacation
Crane said the President was skilled on the golf course throughout the day.
"He played well today," the Astros' owner told MLB.com. "He made some good shots and had some pars, and I think he shot in the 80s. The weather was nice and we had fun. I think he really enjoyed his visit and we really enjoyed having him in the Floridian, and hopefully we'll have him back some day."
Woods has been in the news this year for winning his first tournament of the season at Torrey Pines and also for dating Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn.
