Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner was bragging about his performance at Nebraska's difficult Dismal River Golf Club when he played the following day at nearby Sand Hills Golf Club with a fellow Republican, Gov. Dave Heineman.
"He was very proud of that round he shot on Saturday (at Dismal River) because that was the very first thing he mentioned to us," the Nebraska governor told The World-Herald.
Boehner, R-Ohio, got caught on an open mike Thursday night telling Vice President Joe Biden about last month's Nebraska golf outing as the two waited for President Barack Obama to start his jobs speech to Congress.
Boehner lamented to Biden that the day after hitting 2 under par at Dismal River, he shot an 86 at Sand Hills.
Heineman said he was teamed up with Boehner against one of the speaker's aides and Rex Fisher, the former Nebraska president of Qwest Communications who now works as a senior executive at HDR Inc., the Omaha-based engineering and architecture company.
Heineman said his own score of 75 was his best of the year. In fact, he and Boehner did well enough to win the match and $15 each off the aide and Fisher.
Heineman is chairman of the National Governors Association and said he talks to Boehner when he travels to Washington.
The two talked some business before and after the match, he said.
Heineman told Boehner that the state could weather some reduction in federal spending, but that paring back Medicaid funds by 10 percent, as some have suggested, would be rough.
They also talked about this fall's football matchup between Nebraska and Ohio State.
Heineman bet some Nebraska beef on the contest, while Boehner had an idea involving Jack Nicklaus' famed Muirfield Village Golf Club outside Columbus, Ohio.
"I know what you guys really want — you want to have the opportunity to play Muirfield," Heineman recalled Boehner saying.
"I said, 'We do.' So if Nebraska wins, that should be part of the deal, too."
Contact the writer:
202-630-4823, joe.morton@owh.com
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