Report: Obama snubbed by top golf courses

• Report: Winged Foot, Willow Ridge, and the Trump National Golf Club rejected White House requests
• Obama made two roundtrips between Westchester and Washington D.C. instead of a round of golf
• Considerable planning went into a possible presidential stay at the Double Tree
• But President and First Lady returned to the White House instead of overnighting in Westchester

Labor Day, 2014: The presidential getaway weekend that never was.

Instead of a round of golf and a relaxing evening at a hotel in Westchester County, President Barack Obama made two round-trips between here and Washington D.C., that weekend, his plans thwarted by exclusive golf clubs that did not want to close their courses to regular guests during the holiday.

WNBC-TV, citing unnamed sources, says Winged Foot, Willow Ridge and the Trump National Golf Club were among the courses that rejected the White House requests.

Obama had events in the New York area on Aug. 29 and 30, a Friday and a Saturday, and had planned to spend part of Saturday morning on a golf course, according to the report. He might have spent the night at the Doubletree Hotel Tarrytown; instead, he flew back to the White House on Friday night, and returned to the New York area on Saturday to attend a wedding at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills.

While the area's fancier and far-better-known private clubs may have turned down Obama (a 17-handicap golfer), many municipal golf courses say they would have gladly opened their fairways to the leader of the free world.

"We would have loved to have had him," said Michael Gorham, assistant pro at Blue Hill, a 27-hole course in Orangetown with sweeping views of Lake Tappan. "Absolutely."

Over at Mohansic Golf Course, an 18-hole course in Yorktown Heights, assistant-manager Bob Roth said the course goes out of its way to accommodate different dignitaries of all political stripes.

"We would have found a way to get him in — the same way we get the Governor and or the County Executive," he said. "I don't think these things go by political parties."

Still, the logistics of organizing a presidential outing — and avoiding golfer gridlock — are formidable.

Gorham said hosting Obama at a course, public or private, would involve canceling tee times and clearing the links, lending new meaning to the term 'teed-off' golfers.

Presidents have been snubbed before. After he left the White House and moved to Chappaqua, ex-President Bill Clinton was rumored to be interested in joining the Dellwood Country Club (now the Paramount Country Club) in New City, but got a frosty reception.

There was considerable planning that went into a possible presidential stay at the Double Tree in Tarrytown.

The Double Tree, in the shadow of the Tappan Zee Bridge, had three months' notice before hosting the president's advance team and Secret Service. The president's staff had used the hotel as a staging area in mid-May, when Obama made an infrastructure speech in Tarrytown, with the new bridge as a backdrop.

Soon after, the hotel was contacted about "an August VIP party," which turned out to be the president's Labor Day trip.

Communications were upgraded in the hotel, plans for the advance team set in place, and a laundry list of amenities were sought, including food, carpets, linens, bedding and flowers.

The advance team arrived, the Secret Service, and there was even talk that the president might stay at the Double Tree. But those hopes — which had reached a fever pitch — were for naught, when the president and Mrs. Obama returned to the White House instead of overnighting in Westchester.

In the wake of the Labor Day visit — minus a first-family stay — the White House sent some presidential swag to the hotel, champagne and jelly beans, and sent notes of congratulations to the two couples who were married at the hotel that weekend.

David Jackson of USA TODAY contributed to this report.

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