The Loop

Slow-play epidemic spreads to the presidency

August 27, 2009

First there were Tiger Woods and Padraig Harrington, who were issued a slow-play warning on the 16th tee in the final round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.

Then there were the interminable rounds last weekend at what more than one called the Slow-heim Cup, and the one-stroke slow-play penalty incurred by medalist Tim Jackson at the U.S. Amateur this week.

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Now comes word via the New York Times' Helene Cooper that President Obama's vacation rounds are running in the five-hour range.

"Long slow rounds," she writes.

"He spent five hours on Monday afternoon playing 18 holes at the Farm Neck Golf Club here (Oak Bluffs, Mass.), two and a half hours on Tuesday playing nine holes at Mink Meadows Golf Club in Vineyard Haven, and several hours playing Thursday afternoon at the Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown."

-- John Strege

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