Golf and politics.....

From Jay Nordlinger:

 . . though this post is not about Dick Gephardt. I’d like to tell a golf story — at least one. Yesterday, I had a little item on “the presidential swing” — Obama’s action (or inaction) — and this, predictably, prompted a good deal of mail. One reader wrote in with the following story:

“I frequent a driving range in Seattle and on one occasion found myself hitting balls next to former governor Gary Locke. (He’s now U.S. commerce secretary.) Locke is left-handed, and was hitting a pronounced hook with his driver. Unable to resist, I said to him, ‘I would not have expected you to do anything to the right.’”

Years ago, a politically minded friend and I played some golf together, and we’d refer to a shot short and left as a “Michael Dukakis,” and a shot short and right as a “Yitzhak Shamir.” (That pegs the era, doesn’t it?)

Okay, here’s the story I want to tell — one of my favorites in golf (and there are thousands). Bruce Lietzke was a fantastic player on the PGA Tour. Oddly, he only wanted to play part-time. Anyway, he always, always hit a cut — a left-to-right shot. It was his trademark. One of the best cutters of the ball ever (with Hogan, Trevino, and a handful of others). One day, his young son was on the range, at one of the PGA tournaments — players commonly bring their sons to tournaments, and have them hit on the range. This son was hitting a succession of draws (shots right to left). One of Lietzke’s fellow pros walked by and said, “Must’ve been the milkman.”