Golf or basketball: which sport should President Obama follow?

The Wall Street Journal today focuses on a question of growing national importance: has the president ditched hoops in favor of golf?

Putting aside the resounding "who cares?" contingent, it's not an inconsequential question, at least from a public relations perspective. President Obama gained notoriety on the campaign trail as a regular guy who'd throw on some sweats and run up and down the court just like any other aging ex-jock. He apparently still has enough game to knock off the NCAA women's champion UConn Huskies in an impromptu game of P.I.G. 

But since he's taken office, he's played much more golf than basketball -- 25 rounds to seven games, according to the poor soul whose job it is to keep track of such minutiae. And that's apparently upset some people who'd like to see the president playing more basketball. (Really, though, can a president do anything without upsetting somebody?)

"The fact that he isn't playing [basketball]...is a metaphor for those people who think he's gotten soft, backed off of his promises, sold out," the WSJ quoted Claude Johnson, founder of the website Baller-in-Chief. "When President Obama goes back to basketball, that will be a sign that we haven't lost the original guy."

Yeah, perhaps. Or perhaps this is reaching just a wee bit too much for a story. Thing is, presidents golf. A lot. Dwight Eisenhower played Augusta National so frequently he's got a tree named after him. Bill Clinton enjoyed the game, though -- make of this what you will -- he took so many "extra" shots that his playing partners began calling them "Billigans." George W. Bush played plenty of golf early on in his administration, though he took grief for mixing pleasure with business (the infamous "now watch this drive" moment) and later stopped playing during wartime.

I understand the need for a president to be discreet about these kinds of activities; the last thing that someone who's struggling with his or her day-to-day life needs to see is the Commander-in-Chief strolling a golf course and laughing. Not quite the tighten-the-belt-and-work-harder image you want to project, you know? 

Still, I'm all for the president getting out and playing a few rounds. Guy's got a tough job; least he ought to be able to get out of the gig is a couple hours on the course. If I were president -- and this is one reason of many I'm not -- I'd have tee times on call at Pebble Beach, Augusta and Sawgrass. Any president has earned the right to big-time his way onto the country's marquee courses. 

Having said that, President Obama may not want to give up on hoops entirely. Put aside the whole "break the ankles of your opposition" thing; the Wizards are awful this year, and he could surely get a gig as a swingman coming off the bench. Would make more money than his current job, too.

Okay, your turn. Which sport should the president play? Or should he leave the games to others and work, work, work?

Quietly, the President finds that golf is no slam dunk [Wall Street Journal]

Lee Westwood holds an infamous place in recent golf history as the man with the best view of two of the greatest golf duels of the last couple years. He was the last guy out of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines before Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate began their epic duel, and a year later was the last guy out of the historic Tom Watson-Stewart Cink playoff at the 2009 British Open.

This weekend, though, there was nobody else even close to Westwood, and he made sure that he was the last man standing at the Dubai World Championships. He claimed both the tournament and the winner's check for the Race to Dubai, easily getting past Rory McIlroy along the way.

Spurred on by his caddy's advice to "go out and bully other people," Westwood did exactly that -- well, as much as you can bully somebody on the golf course.

And he got all up in McIlroy's head. The 20-year-old wunderkind couldn't come close to hanging with Westwood, and eventually got so ticked at the way his round was going that he plowed his club through a sign. And it helped; he reeled off six birdies over the next nine holes. But it wasn't enough, and now Westwood owns the day.

"Rory is only 20--I can't even remember what it was like to be 20--and he will have many more chances ahead of him to win the money list," Westwood said. 

True enough. Plus, Westwood has that killer trophy. Swing that thing around, and he'll be a better bully than ever.

Lee Westwood of England wins Dubai, money titles [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

So have you ever thrown a party at your place and there's one guest who just ... won't ... leave? I mean, you've hustled everybody else out the door, you're starting to pick up the spare beer cans and empty pizza boxes, you're maybe even brushing your teeth, and there's still one guest there, talking about how awesome the party was and looking very much like they're going to crash on the couch ...

Well, that hangaround guest is the LPGA. The PGA, the Champions, the Nationwide, even the little ancillary tours have all packed it in for the winter, but the LPGA hangs around, not quite ready to leave. And in a way, you can't blame them -- with a new commissioner and Michelle Wie's win, it's like they got their second wind right around the time everybody else is heading for the exits.

Still, there's drama afoot at the LPGA Tour Championship, which seems like it's been going on forever but has only been rolling since last Thursday. And believe it or not, the second round didn't even finish until this morning thanks to the heavy rains that have pounded the Houstonian course in Texas and shortened the event to 54 holes.

So here's where we stand heading into the third and final round.  Kristy McPherson leads the field at -8, just one stroke ahead of Jiyai Shin and two ahead of Lorena Ochoa and others. But while it's interesting that McPherson is looking for her first LPGA win, it's the battle between Shin and Ochoa that's the real focus of the day.

Shin and Ochoa are neck-and-neck for the player of the year title. As laid out here, Ochoa must either win the event outright, or place no lower than third and hope Shin falls out of the top 10.  That spot is only three strokes below where Shin now sits, so it's not out of the question. The two are also dueling for the Vare Trophy for the year's lowest scoring average, and a swing one way or the other would dictate that as well.

Hang tight, folks; this should all wrap up today. If not, we're gonna start charging these ladies rent. And since Thanksgiving is approaching and they're gonna have a hard time getting flights, they may not have a choice.

So with the Race to Dubai and the LPGA season now (almost) complete, we can all call it a round and head to the clubhouse to dissect our every shot. Even though the golf season is sort-of done until January, we'll still be hanging here at Devil Ball, talking anything and everything golf every day. Later today, we'll continue our "Best of the Decade" series, and after Thanksgiving, we'll start a complete breakdown of the 2009 season. We'll also be running podcasts and plenty of other fun stuff to get you through those lonely winter weeks. 

Come hang. We'll buy the first round.

Your Saturday golf tour update: Lee Westwood is running the show at the Dubai World Championships, owning a two-shot lead after three rounds. He's also leading Rory McIlroy in the hunt for the Race to Dubai championship. If Westwood takes both the tournament and the race, he'd become Europe's No. 1 player and pocket a handy $2.75 million. McIlroy was within one shot, but collapsed to fall five strokes back after three rounds. Ross McGowan is in second place, and Padraig Harrington and Alexander Noren are in third with McIlroy.

Meanwhile, things aren't quite so rosy in Houston at the LPGA, where rain has caused no end of havoc.  The second round is supposed to go off Saturday afternoon, but persistent rain could push the tournament to Monday or shorten it. Lorena Ochoa is currently leading with a six-under 66, but hasn't played a shot in her second round yet.

Stay tuned for more updates!

We're at the end of the decade of the 2000s, and so we're looking back on the highs and lows of the decade. And today, it's definitely about the lows -- the most painful coulda-been chokes from the last 10 years. How would the golf world have been changed had any of these gone a different way? We'll never know. Read and cringe.

1. Phil Mickelson, 2006 U.S. Open. For a brief moment, it appeared Phil Mickelson was ready to challenge Tiger Woods for the title of best golfer in the world. He had a two-shot lead on 16 and a one-shot lead on 18, but spanged his drive off hospitality tent, then dinged his second shot off a tree trying an overly aggressive shot. Agonizing moments later, he'd surrendered the Open to Geoff Ogilvy in one of the most painful collapses in golf history.

2. Sergio Garcia, 2005 Wachovia Championship. Sergio had a six-shot lead going into the final round, but gave it all away in the worst collapse since Greg Norman's 1996 Masters meltdown.

3. Kenny Perry, 2009 Masters. All he needed to do was make par on one of the last two holes. He bogeyed both. All he needed to do was drain a reasonable putt on 18. He missed. But like #10 on this list, being a great guy doesn't keep the Choke Monkey off your shoulders.

4. Thomas Bjorn, 2003 British Open. Bjorn had a two-shot lead with three holes to play, but double-bogeyed 16 and bogeyed 17 to gift-wrap the Open for Ben Curtis. 

5. Greg Owen, 2006 Arnold Palmer Invitational. Owen all but had the Arnold Palmer Invitational wrapped up when he three-putted the 17th from about two feet out. Owen would bogey the final hole, giving Rod Pampling the surprising win.

6. Matt Gogel, 2000 Pebble Beach. Gogel was seven strokes up on Tiger Woods with seven to play, and ended up losing in one of the most dramatic collapses in the face of a Tiger charge ever.

7. Stewart Cink, 2001 U.S. Open. Cink missed an 18-inch virtual tap-in that kept him out of a playoff at the U.S. Open. But as you may have heard, he did okay on another 18th-hole putt that led to a playoff a few years later.

8. Suzanne Pettersen, 2007 Kraft Nabisco. There are ways to win a tournament, but going bogey-bogey-bogey-double bogey over the final four holes isn't one of them.

9. Lorena Ochoa, 2005 U.S. Women's Open. Standing on the 18th tee with a chance to either win with a birdie the Open or at least get onto a playoff, Ochoa utterly grounded her driver and skulled the ball into the water to the left of the tee. Her approach ended in the grandstands, as did her tournament hopes with a quadruple bogey. 

10. Tom Watson, 2009 British Open. Oh man, was this hard to put on this list. Watson's 2009 Open was almost the best day ever in golf. But when all he had to do was make par on 18 -- and when he left short a winning putt that he's made a million times before -- what else is there to say? Take the emotion out of this -- and believe me, we wanted Watson to win, badly -- and replace Watson's name with any other golfer on Tour, and you'd call it a choke without a second thought.

Also receiving consideration: Tiger Woods at the 2009 PGA, Colin Montgomerie at the 2006 U.S. Open, Sergio Garcia at the 2008 British Open, Michelle Wie failing to sign her card at the 2008 State Farm Classic.

Your turn. What did we miss? What belongs higher (or lower) on this list? (And no, if we were in the position of these folks, we would have done even worse. So would you.) You're up!

Welcome to the latest episode of the Devil Ball Golfcast, where today we're trying something new, something I think you'll dig. Shane Bacon of Dogs That Chase Cars is joining us today and every week for as long as we can hold onto him to talk golf and life.

Today, Shane discusses caddying for Erica Blasberg at the LPGA Tour Championship, as well as his own pro tour experience. (Yes, folks, he's a blogger who's actually played a sport! Amazing!) We also talk Michelle Wie and Tiger Woods, and finish with a discussion of the guy you least want in your golf foursome.

As always, we welcome your thoughts, ideas, and recommendations on the podcast. Hit me up at jay.busbee@yahoo.com. And if you've got a question or comment for Shane and I to kick around, call our Skype line at 678-389-9173 and leave your message. Click the little arrow below to play the podcast or right-click it to download, and hit the iTunes site linked below to subscribe. Have at it!

Devil Ball Golfcast, Episode 25 -- The joys of carrying somebody else's bag

Michelle Wie's Salvation of the LPGA will have to wait until next year, as she's withdrawn from the LPGA Tour Championship because of a sprained left ankle.

Wie first hurt the ankle at the Solheim Cup this past summer, and said it had been bothering her on and off ever since. She played well in the opening holes of the Tour Championship, getting as low as three under through 12, but then had trouble on tee shots. After an hour of treatment, she called it a tournament and a season.

Wie, of course, caused all kinds of controversy back in 2007 when she may or may not have had a wrist injury called by a fall; not that it really matters, but she was off the course for awhile and had trouble once she returned. Conspiracy theorists guessed that she'd fabricated the injury to take time off from the game, and maybe she did, but bottom line -- as with many other elements of her game, it seems Michelle has learned a lesson or two, and this injury certainly appears legit.

That weeping sound you heard last night? Yeah, that was the LPGA brass, crying at the ratings bonanza that just vanished into the ether. Sure, it'll still be a dramatic weekend of women's golf -- stop giggling, I'm not being sarcastic -- but Wie would've brought in that many more viewers. Ah, well. Get well soon and start fresh in '10, Michelle.

Wie withdraws because of ankle injury [AP via Yahoo! Sports]

We're at the end of the 2009 season, and we're taking a look back at how the top 20 on the money list fared. Next up: Dustin Johnson.

Coming into 2009: 2008 was Johnson's first year on Tour, and he made a splash right off the bat by winning the Turning Stone Resort Championship. 

High-water mark: Johnson took the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in a win shortened by rain. It was the best of five top-10 finishes. He wrapped the year 15th on the money list with nearly $3 million in earnings.

The low point: Johnson was arrested for DUI in March. but immediately said he'd learned his lesson. A couple weeks later, he played at Augusta for the first time, ahd he's been a model citizen since.

Outlook for 2010: Strong. Johnson finished the majors season with a tie for 10th at the PGA Championship, and he's set up well to have another solid season in 2010.

Related Dustin Johnson posts from 2009:
2009 hasn't been kind to rookies on the PGA Tour
Hey, ho, Pebble Beach has got to go

Coming into the season, many golf observers were picking Martin Kaymer as a breakout star. By the summertime, everything was lining up well for the young German, as he won the Barclays Scottish Open and the French Open in consecutive weeks.

But then came August, and an ill-fated trip on a go-kart. He wrecked and broke several toes, and just like that put a huge dent in his chances to win the Race to Dubai. 

He entered the current Dubai World Championships in third place, more than $330,000 behind leader Rory McIlroy. Now, he could still win the championship and the monstrous Race to Dubai, but it's much harder now. Lee Westwood and Ross Fisher are also in the mix.

If Kaymer wins, he becomes the youngest Vardon winner since Bernhard Langer in 1981 -- though, it must be pointed out, McIlroy would be the second-youngest of all time, behind the 19-year-old Seve Ballesteros in 1976.

Regardless, Kaymer is poised to be one of the major players on the golf scene for the next few years ... though it sure sounds like he's not giving up the golf carts: "It was just unlucky," he said. "It was not my fault. It was the fault of the other driver. He crashed into me and pushed me into the guys in front ... I'm sure I will do it again in the future and have fun."

All right, then. Well, for now, Kaymer in a tie for 22nd, six strokes off the lead, after the first round. Good thing there aren't any carts on the course.