DRIVING THE CONVERSATION - TOMORROW'S OBAMA-BOEHNER GOLF SUMMIT

AFP's Stephen Collinson: "With the world's top players [teeing off] at swank Congressional Country Club in the Washington suburbs, the political elite are fixated on a different showdown, at a venue to be confirmed on Saturday. President Obama will take on Speaker John Boehner ... Obama and Boehner ... have a courteous but cool public relationship. But they do have one thing in common, an obsession with spoiling good walks by thrashing around a little white ball. The president plays [many] weekend[s], usually on the utilitarian fairways of Andrews Air Force base, ... and takes his clubs on the road for ... holidays in Martha's Vineyard or Hawaii.

Boehner is said to have a taste for the finer golf courses in life, and is the better player, coming in 43rd in a recent Golf Digest survey of the capital's best golfers while Obama limped in at 108th.Asked to divulge the president's handicap, ... Jay Carney, quipped 'classified.' Saturday's high powered presidential foursome will be rounded out by Vice President Joe Biden, off a snazzy 6.3 handicap, and Ohio Governor John Kasich" (R).

--Most-wanted stat from tomorrow's summit: number of cigarettes smoked, and by whom.

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