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Price meets Obama

Sport
Nick Price, together with Fred Couples, the US captain, spent 20 minutes with Barack Obama in the Oval Office at the White House.

ZIMBABWE golf legend Nick Price might no longer be the force to reckon with that he once was at the peak of his career, but still continues to lift the country’s flag high at the world stage, after recently meeting United States President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington DC.

Teeing off with Daniel Nhakaniso

Price, the former world number one, a winner of three Majors in the 1990s and one of Zimbabwe’s greatest sportsmen of all time, will captain the 2013 International President’s Cup team.

Price, together with Fred Couples, the US captain, spent 20 minutes with Obama in the Oval Office at the White House, chatting and before posing for pictures with the President’s Cup trophy.

Price, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2003, got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of meeting Obama as he is the honorary chairman of the biennial President’s Cup.The biennial President’s Cup sees 12 players from the US take on 12 players from the rest of the world — excluding Europe — and this year’s edition will be held at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio, from October 3-6.

According to the President’s Cup’s official website, Obama asked Price, who is making his debut as the International captain, how his team was stacking up.

“Price said it’s predominantly made up of Australians and South Africans right now, but added that the summer’s slate of tournaments, which includes three majors and one World Golf Championships event, would likely help define the International squad. The three talked of a potential round of golf in the future,” said the reports on the President’s Cup website.

While it was Price’s first visit to the White House,it was the second for his opposite number Couples who had previously met the President prior to the 2009 matches at Harding Park in San Francisco, where Obama also served as honorary chairperson.

Price won five events on the European Tour and 18 titles on the PGA Tour. He won the 1992 and 1994 PGA Championships as well as the 1994 British Open Championship. He was a member of five President’s Cup teams.

This year’s President’s Cup is expected to have a Zimbabwean flavour as the International Team already has two Zimbabwean natives in Tony Johnstone and Mark McNulty, who Price has chosen, alongside Japan’s Shigeki Maruyama, for his three assistant captains.

Zimbabwe’s leading professional golfer Brendon De Jonge, who has been one of the most consistent golfers on the PGA Tour, is also in contention for a place in the Presidents Cup International team.