Golf and tennis were the main activities on the agenda for President Obama yesterday as he and his family spent the first full day of their summer vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.
Clad in a dark shirt and grayish slacks, the president hit the links at the Farm Neck Golf Course — where the first duffer’s initial shot hooked left as an appreciative crowd looked on.
“Hi, guys,” Obama said, waving to the onlookers before taking a swing.
The ball sliced into a wooded area, and the president had to take a walk deep into the trees to play on.
His golfing party included UBS Investment Bank President Robert Wolf, Chicago doctor Eric Whitaker and White House aide Marvin Nicholson.
The president told onlookers that his daughters were swimming while he was teeing off.
Earlier in the day, Obama played tennis with his wife, Michelle, after his usual morning workout.
As the first family hung out at the Blue Heron Farm, which rents for an estimated $35,000 a week, locals from the neighborhood of Oak Bluffs hoped for a glimpse of the famous visitors.
Team Obama suggested there might be some sojourns into town for treats like ice cream — giving the family a chance to see the eateries hawking specialty snacks and cocktails in the president’s honor.
Among them were an Obamarita and a Baracko-taco at Sharky’s restaurant.
White House spokesman Bill Burton gave a briefing yesterday in which he revealed the president brought five books with him on his 10-day summer jaunt.
They are: “Lush Life,” by Richard Price; “The Way Home,” by George Pelecanos; “Plainsong,” by Kent Haruf; “Hot, Flat and Crowded,” by Thomas Friedman; and “John Adams,” by David McCullough.
The vacation home rests on a 28-acre parcel of land and has hosted one other well-known Washingtonian — then-President Bill Clinton, who stayed there with his family just as the Monica Lewinsky scandal was breaking in 1998.
The house was redesigned in 2004, according to Joe Nahem, of the firm Fox-Nahem Associates, which helped redecorate and make over the digs.
Nahem said the house is about 3,500 to 4,000 square feet, with four bedrooms and three baths upstairs and a powder room on the first floor.
The basement has a screening room and a wine cellar, Nahem said, and there’s a pool outside and even a boathouse along the inlet nearby.
“It’s a very cozy house,” he said. “I’m sure they’re gonna be really thrilled there.”