Hey, President Obama, give golf a boost, buy me a set of Pings

I was in the midst of breaking down the economic stimulus package over morning coffee and getting ready to call President Obama with the solution when this story came across the wire.

Actually, it was buried in my email. But one look at the headline for the GolfWorld piece dated Monday, Jan. 19, caused me to turn off the calculator and put down the phone.

“Golf courses were among FDR’s public works projects in the ’30s, and President Obama should include them in the economic stimulus mix”

Eureka! Problem solved!

Why didn’t I think of that? Build more courses? Perfect … They’re digging up greens and plowing under fairways in most parts of the country. They could probably use a Fed bailout to get rid of the surplus from the last 10 years when the golf industry was on crack and couldn’t stop building them.

Actually, it was a tightly-written, well-reported historical perspective, backed up by numbers and taking more of a business approach to the issue. Did you know famed layouts Southern Hills, Prairie Dunes and Bethpage Black were all built under FDR’s public works projects?

Hey, I’m all for more golf, but we can certainly find a better way to use the money. Like sending me a couple dozen Titleist Pro V1s. Make that Pro V1x.

After reading it, I did a podcast with our Dave Berner, who made a great point, mentioning how anything put on the golf plate now would be viewed as pork.

He’s right. Only it would be seen as the whole pig.

Obama plays golf (badly, even he admits). He’s left-handed. But maybe he’ll get on the right side of the issue and stimulate golf by helping us where it would do the most good.

Instead of a chicken in every pot, how about a new set of clubs in every bag?

Don’t worry. I’ll give him a call.