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Several elite Westchester County golf courses turned down President Obama’s request to tee off on their links over Labor Day weekend, according to a broadcast report.
Obama was turned down at Trump National Golf Club, the Winged Foot and Willow Ridge, among other high-end courses, club sources told WNBC, because the White House advance team gave them very short notice for a requested tee time on Saturday, Aug. 30.
To accommodate the massive security team that follows any president, the clubs would have had to inconvenience many of their well-heeled golfers to get Obama a tee time and they didn’t want to do that, the NBC affiliate reported.
The clubs in question reportedly were given just one or two days to respond. The Labor Day weekend is one of golf’s biggest, and private clubs are loath to inconvenience regulars, some who pay more than $100,000 annually in membership dues.
Reps for Trump National in Briar Cliff Manor, Willow Ridge in Harrison and Winged Foot in Mamaroneck declined to comment, WNBC reported.
The golf snub might have altered the president’s travel plans.
Obama spent Friday, Aug. 29, hitting fundraisers in New York and Rhode Island.
He originally had planned to spend that night in Westchester County before attending the wedding of MSNBC host Alex Wagner and White House chef Sam Kass at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills on Saturday, Aug. 30.
The president made a last-second decision to instead return to the White House late Aug. 29 before heading back to Westchester County the next day for Wagner and Kass’ wedding.
At the time, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama himself made the decision to go back to Washington and that the choice had no ties to any current events. The last-moment travel change resulted in the cancellation of some hotel rooms and a re-routing of security details.
“He can sleep in his own bed, do a little work tomorrow, spend some time with his family and then travel back to New York tomorrow evening to attend a private event,” Earnest said then.
Political analyst Dan Gerstein told WNBC that Obama’s low approval rating must have influenced the clubs’ decisions to turn down America’s duffer-in-chief.
“I think he has lost that star quality he had in his first two years in office and in that 2008 campaign,” Gerstein said.
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