Editor’s note: President Obama is spending the holidays in Hawaii, where he is shooting hoops, snorkeling, hanging with the family and chasing the little white ball. The following piece from the ARMCHAIR GOLF archives was published almost exactly a year ago when a New Republic senior editor criticized the president’s golf habit. Clearly, the president has not taken her advice.

MICHELLE COTTLE’S COMMENTARY about President Obama’s “dangerous obsession with golf” has alerted me that I may be a hopeless golf addict who exhibits many undesirable attributes. And you might be in the same foursome with me, my friend.

Cottle is a senior editor for The New Republic. She has a problem—several, really—with 44’s affection for the small dimpled ball.

“Why would a leader vowing to shake up Washington—to alter the very nature of politics—sell his soul to a leisure activity that screams stodgy, hyperconventional Old Guard?” she asks.

By carefully reading her article, I learned several things about my favorite pastime and what it might say about you, me and the president of these United States. For instance, she outlines telltale signs of a “creeping golf addiction,” such as:

• Playing for more than a decade
• Playing for cash
• Fretting about form
• Goading others to leave work early for a round of golf
• Constantly looking to squeeze in a few holes

Where might it all lead? To dark, risky places, according to Cottle.

“In the popular imagination, golf is the stuff of corporate deal-cutting, congressional junkets, and country club exclusivity,” she writes.

(Clearly, my golf addiction has been short-changing me.)

There’s more.

“And, unless a president is very careful, a golf habit can easily be spun as evidence of unseemly character traits ranging from laziness to callousness to out-of-touch elitism.”

(I definitely think I have the laziness down. But my out-of-touch elitism needs work.)

For the president to revamp his image in the new year, Cottle says “he could start by ditching golf.” If she knew I liked golf as much as the president, she might say the same thing to me.

They say the first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem. I have a problem. I miss too many four-footers. Now excuse me while I groove my putting stroke in the den.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Image: Roberto De Vido/Flickr)

I played a round of golf today at Keysgate Golf Club in Homestead, FL with my good friends Hurchell and Marc. I was excited because it was the first time we were playing at this facility. I love playing new courses. My collection of club logo balls is growing. I am up to 35 as of this post. It should be more, but there have been a few pro shops that did not have one available.

Marc had to work in the morning and we had to rush to make our tee time. As a result, we did not have time to hit balls before the round. We got to the course, paid for our round, and went straight to the first tee. Hurchell lives near the course so he was warmed up and ready to go by the time we got there. It ended up being a rainy afternoon, so on top of not being warmed up, we had to deal with soggy course conditions.

I was disappointed that I did not get a chance to warm up because I wanted to work on some things in my swing that Mike Southern of the Ruthless Golf blog had pointed out too me. Mike is doing a four part series on my swing demonstrating how to get rid of the over the top swing or the “loop” as I like to call it.

In part 2 of Mike’s dissection of my swing, he pointed out a few quirks in my takeaway that were causing my loop. The areas were:

* Dexter has an over-the-top swing because he gets his hands in a bad position early on.

* He gets them in this bad position because he bends his right elbow too soon.

* He bends his right elbow too soon because he doesn’t turn his shoulders early enough in the backswing.

* If we teach him how to turn his shoulders properly, then his elbow won’t bend too soon, which means his hands won’t go to that bad position and he’ll stop swinging over the top.

The following stills illustrate what Mike is talking about. The black lines are where the club should be. As you can see, my right elbow is tucked into my side and bent way too early in the takeaway. Even Marc, who has no real idea of swing mechanics, pointed this out to me on the tee box.

In Mike’s next post(part 3), he will give me and my fellow loopers(not caddies, but guys & gals like me who swing over the top) some drills to work on to help cure our ugly swings. Now that I understand why I am coming over the top, these drills should help to ingrain the proper technique in my takeaway in order to stay on the proper plane throughout the swing.

The following is footage of my approach shot into the 18th green. The loop is evident but I have to stick with it until I get the drills from Mike. The flag was placed on the top level of a two-tiered green. Unfortunately I hit it onto the bottom tier. This left me with a difficult 45 foot putt uphill to save par(I hit a bad tee shot and had to chip out on the prior shot). So what do think? Do I make it? Check it out.

Have a good round and always hit your target.

P.S. Marc wanted to make sure that he received credit for his camera work. So…Thank You Marc!

Claim Your Free Weekly Golf Swing Videos Here!