Tom Lehman's Tips for Golf Summit

5-time PGA champ on president's outing with Biden, Boehner, Kasich

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF “YOUR WORLD”: All right, place your bets. Who claims more mulligans, the president or the speaker? Barack Obama, John Boehner, they’re hitting the links this weekend.

And leaving aside who turns in the better score, professional golfer Tom Lehman says we’ll all be, well, potentially better for the game.

Back in the 1990s, Tom was briefly ranked the number-one golfer in the world. And he’s won five teams on the PGA Tour, the winner of the Phoenix Open, darn near, at least twice, Tom, on the U.S. Open. Tom says it is an open-and-shut case; these things are good.

Good to have you. Right?

(LAUGHTER)

TOM LEHMAN, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: It’s good to be with you. Thank you.

CAVUTO: The president and the speaker on the links, can anything get done? Or does it matter if anything gets done?

LEHMAN: Well, I think things can get done, and it does matter, actually. I think it matters a lot what can get done.

And the thing about golf is, it can -- you use golf to kind of build relationships. And this is a day, I think, for finding common ground and just kind of maybe taking a relationship that may be strained in some way and maybe working it to make it more workable. So, I think there’s a lot of potential.

CAVUTO: But, Tom, have you ever been paired up with a guy you hate?

(LAUGHTER) LEHMAN: Absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: So, how did you deal with it?

(CROSSTALK)

LEHMAN: And you know what? Well, I think -- I’m not sure hate is the right word.

CAVUTO: Loathe?

LEHMAN: You know when you -- when you play golf with somebody, you spend four hours or more walking with somebody, usually, you learn something about them that you didn’t know before.

And if it’s truly a round of golf to get together and to explore some possibilities, you know, you will do that. And you should walk away from it either with more respect, a renewed respect, an increased respect. Maybe you like the guy even more. Or maybe you walk away saying, you know what? I actually feel like my intuition was correct and I don’t like him as much.

But...

(CROSSTALK) CAVUTO: Well, what if the other guy is the better golfer, and then he’s making you regret going golfing because he’s showing you up? (LAUGHTER) LEHMAN: Well, that’s why you have handicaps.

(LAUGHTER)

LEHMAN: We’re hearing about what the handicaps were.

And you know what? But the handicaps can say a lot. I play with a lot of guys who say they’re a five handicap, and they shoot 110. And then you play with guys who say they are a 20 and they shoot 75.

And, so, either way, it kind of gives them insight into maybe the ego or the competitiveness or whatever it might take to win.

CAVUTO: No, I hear you. I hear you, Tom. One time I got a 72. On the second hole, I think it was a...

(LAUGHTER) LEHMAN: Yes.

CAVUTO: Tom, thank you.

LEHMAN: Yes, I don’t want to play with you then. All right.

CAVUTO: No, you -- believe me, you don’t.

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: Very, very good having you. Thank you, Tom, very much.

LEHMAN: All right. Thank you.

CAVUTO: All right.

Content and Programming Copyright 2011 Fox News Network, Inc. Copyright CQ-2011 Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.

Fox News First