The president is spending a long weekend at the Bush’s family home.

KENNEBUNKPORT (AP) – President Bush, joined by his father, hit a cool, damp golf course early Sunday, pulling up in a golf cart to the first tee and exclaiming “Happy Father’s Day.”

Former President Bush went first and without hesitation drove the ball down the fairway. “No mulligans,” he said, refraining from taking another shot.

The golf game, which got under way at 6:15 a.m., was the second that father and son played since the president arrived for a long weekend at the Bush family’s oceanfront estate at Walker’s Point.

The president was leaving Monday for New Jersey where he planned to speak to the business community before returning to the White House.

Asked what he was going to do for his father during the day, Bush said: “I’m going to play golf with dad, fish with dad, have lunch with dad, dinner with dad.”

Under a light drizzle, Bush flubbed a shot on the 18th hole, leaving his ball on the side of the fairway, far from the green. The next shot got him closer to the last green where an American flag flew from the pole, but he never finished the hole.

“Really lousy” is how the president summed up his game.

Both Bush and his father quickly changed clothes at the golf course and hopped into a motorcade bound for First Congregational Church. First lady Laura Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush were waiting for them at the chapel.

The Rev. Bonnie Steinroeder welcomed the presidential entourage, asked Bush about his golf game and then quipped: “Didn’t look good” – a remark that drew smiles from her parishioners.

Later, she prayed: “Help us to not give up on the idea that peace can happen.”

Unrest in the Middle East apparently was on the president’s mind. As he left the church, he stopped outside to tell reporters that recent violence in the region had not dashed his hope for lasting peace and that those who want to see it achieved must deal harshly with terrorists trying to prevent it.

After church, Bush and his father went out on a white speed boat named “Fidelity II” to fish along the rocky shore near Walker’s Point.


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