"It's not just enough to change the players. We've gotta change the game."

— Barack Obama

It's doubtful that the game Barack Obama means to change is golf, which is probably second only to shooting hoops as his favorite pastime. He's too much into golf not to tee it up every chance he gets.

The question, though, is will he change from Olomana to a different golf course the next time he tees it up in his native state of Hawai'i after taking office as the 44th president of the United States on Jan. 20.

It's one thing to play Olomana as he did during a break while campaigning for the presidency. Olomana Golf Links is an Everyman's Golf Course. You can't get more down home or down-to-earth than Waimanalo and it was good PR to play there instead of a private course like the Waialae Country Club. Obama can do that after he becomes president, as Bill Clinton did. Gerald Ford also played at Waialae in a United Airlines Hawaiian Open Pro-Am but it was after he left the White House. No, he didn't hit any spectator in the gallery.

"Obama really enjoys playing here," said Norman-Ganin Asao, Olomana's head golf professional. It must be. He made it a point of playing there for the second time in August along with Luana Hills.

Ed Kageyama, Ka'anapali Resorts golf general manager, just happened to be on the scene at Obama's Olomana sighting. "I had just bought a new camera and was at my son's golf class with Casey Nakama," said Kageyama, who was ready to snap photos of his 10-year-old son, Ethan, a fourth-grader at Punahou School.

Suddenly, there was all this commotion. Driving his own golf cart, Obama was coming through, making the turn after nine holes. He even stopped by the snack shack to get a bite to eat and something to drink. What impressed Kageyama was that Obama didn't cut in line, even refusing offers to go ahead by the others who were waiting. "He waited in line like everybody else," said Kageyama, who wound up taking more photos of Obama than his son that day.

It's a moment Kageyama will never forget. And one that local golf fans may never experience that up front and personal again when Obama becomes president. So while Obama enjoys Olomana, he might have to forego playing there because of security reasons. Security will be more intense than when he was a presidential hopeful or even president-elect. It's the president we're talking about here.

It's likely that Obama's first round of golf here as president will be at a more secure venue — Waialae or a military base course such as Hickam's Mamala Bay or Kane'ohe Klipper at the Marine Corps Air Station.

This brings us to the subject of golf and presidents, especially those who have played a round or two here.

Clinton, who has said he's gotten better at golf since becoming president, played Waialae three times: 1993, 1994 and again in 2002 after leaving the White House. He was a golfer after my heart, playing 36 holes that day in 1993 — a morning round at the Mamala Bay and then Waialae in the afternoon. He must have used a lot of mulligans that day.

Clinton also played Kane'ohe Klipper when he couldn't get a morning tee time at Waialae because the club was holding its annual women's invitational tournament. George H.W. Bush also played Hickam during one of his two visits. His son, George W., visited the troops at Hickam AFB but had no time to get in a round.

Neither did President Richard M. Nixon, who wasn't a bad golfer before he quit playing, which is ironic considering he's famous for saying, "I am not a quitter." But give him some credit for using golf as a diplomatic tool to further business relations with Japan in the same way that he used "ping pong diplomacy" to ease tensions with China.

The most famous American president who golfed here or anywhere else has to be Dwight David Eisenhower, who came to Hawai'i in 1952, a month before his inauguration, and again in 1960. As president, Eisenhower stayed at the Kane'ohe Marine base the entire time. Not just because of the security — 6,000 troops were stationed there back then — but mostly because he could play the Klipper course every day with the late Jimmy Ukauka, then the head golf professional. It wouldn't be surprising if Ike had the record for most times played as president locally because he reportedly played more than 800 rounds during his eight years in the White House.

Ukauka, one of Hawai'i's golf legends, designed Klipper's back nine. He simply burst with pride when Eisenhower told him the 13th hole along the ocean with the Windward side of the Ko'olau Range forming a dramatic backdrop was one of the most gorgeous holes he has ever played. Ukauka even got Eisenhower to give a presidential reprieve to a kiawe tree at the right of the green at the par-3 fourth hole. Ukauka's boss, probably a slicer, wanted to cut it down. "You take away that tree and it's a nothing hole," Ukauka said.

Unfortunately, the "Eisenhower Tree," as it was called for a far different reason than the "Eisenhower Tree" at Augusta National's par-3 17th hole (Ike wanted that cut down), never fully recovered after being blown down by Hurricane Iwa in 1982. They propped it up several times before finally replacing it with a royal palm. The local "Eisenhower Tree" is still acknowledged with a granite plaque at the tee box installed by former head pro Chuck Larson and assistant, Louie Lee, who's still at Klipper after more than 30 years, during the centennial anniversary of Eisenhower's death in 1990.

As president, Obama can play anywhere he wants. But I think he would love playing Kane'ohe Klipper as much as Ike did. And you can't beat the security there.