Obama\'s Latest Senate Outreach: Monday Golf Date

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters President Obama lined up his putt while playing golf at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Monday with Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee. Senators Saxby Chambliss, the Georgia Republican, and Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat, also joined.

7:50 p.m. | Updated Washington was overcast and rain threatened on Monday. But President Obama figured it was a good day for golf nonetheless, inviting three senators to complete his foursome rather than the usual staff aides.

In the latest bit of outreach to Congress to press for his troubled domestic agenda, Mr. Obama invited two Republicans, Senators Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Bob Corker of Tennessee, and one Democrat, Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, to golf with him at Joint Base Andrews.

The nearly four hours of golf ended memorably, though not, apparently, with any legislative breakthroughs. Mr. Chambliss hit a hole-in-one on the 11th hole, allowing him and Mr. Corker to beat the Democratic team of Mr. Obama and Mr. Udall. “That ball will be quite a keepsake,” said Mr. Chambliss's spokeswoman, Bronwyn Lance Chester.

According to the White House, the president had the highest handicap of the foursome and Mr. Udall, who was once singled out in Golf Digest as top-ranked among elected officials, the lowest.

“The president enjoyed the chance to spend some time on the golf course with the senators,” the White House said in a statement. “Most of the talk centered on the round of golf and not the latest round of legislative negotiations in Congress. The president was pleased that the rain held off, despite the damp forecast.”

All three of his Senate guests are the sort who are willing to work with colleagues of the other party on bipartisan legislation - just the sort of legislators Mr. Obama is hoping to build into a super-majority, at least 60 votes, in the Democrat-led Senate to pass second-term priorities like budget, immigration and gun measures. If the Senate passed such legislation, the strategy holds, the Republican-led House would be under pressure to compromise in turn.

Mr. Chambliss has worked with Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, toward a bipartisan deficit reduction package that would both cut spending and increase tax revenue. And from his days in the House, Mr. Chambliss remains a close confidant - and golf companion - of Speaker John A. Boehner.