“In a lot of ways, I think President Obama could help with the perception of golf."

I kept waiting for the PGA Tour's finest to take big swing and miss when answering Bill Pennington's questions about Barack Obama's love of golf. Miraculously, they sounded sincerely happy that the President is an avid golfer.

“Golf is not an elitist sport, even though we golfers are told that all the time,” Casey said. “Aren’t there far more public golf course players than country club players?”

In fact, 75 percent of all rounds in America are played on public courses.

“We fight the elitist label all the time because people like to say we’re all products of a country club environment,” Love said. “Well, I came up from the cart barn part of the country club. My father worked at the club. He was the pro, and it was hard work.

“In a lot of ways, I think President Obama could help with the perception of golf. We know that kids all over the nation now think they can be president someday because of him. I hope they look at him playing golf and say, ‘Hey, I can play that game, too.’ ”