Republican Senators defeat Barack Obama in golf

Washington: US President Barack Obama has lost a golf match while playing with two Republican senators Saxby Chambliss and Bob Corker, a White House official said. Obama, paired with his fellow Democrat Mark Udall on Sunday, was defeated by the duo Republican lawmakers. [caption id=“attachment_757641” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  U.S. President Barack Obama lines up his putt as Senator Bob Corker looks on during a round of golf at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Reuters[/caption] “This afternoon, the President, who has the highest handicap of the foursome, paired up with Senator Udall, who has the lowest. Senators Chambliss and Corker, aided by Chambliss’s hole-in-one on the 11th, won the match,” a White House official said after the game was over. “The President enjoyed the chance to spend some time on the golf course with the Senators. Most of the talk centered on the round of golf and not the latest round of legislative negotiations in Congress,” the official said, adding that, Obama was pleased that the rain held off, despite the damp forecast. Earlier in the day, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters that playing golf is in keeping with Obama’s engagement with lawmakers of both parties, and in particular Republican senators, to see if he can find some common ground on some of the challenges that confront the country. Carney said Obama is “willing to try anything” to resolve the differences with Republicans. “Whether it’s a conversation on the phone, or a meeting in the Oval Office, or dinner at a restaurant, or dinner at the residence, he’s going to have the same kinds of conversations and test the theory that this kind of engagement can help produce the results that everybody or at least the majority of the people in this country who care about and pay attention to these issues wants to see,” he said. “I get asked a lot about inside game, outside game. He has long engaged in both. He’s having one-on-one conversations, group conversations, meals, golf games, hard-headed negotiations with legislators, and he is going out to the country and talking to regular folks out there about the issues that matter to them and about the need for them to speak up and engage in a process to demand that Congress take action and do the responsible thing to help the economy grow to help the middle class,” said Carney. PTI