Obama, Women and Golf

President Barack Obama bristled last week when asked why he didn't include women in a basketball game at the White House. He called charges he's fostering a boys club atmosphere "bunk." But somebody who arranges the president's sporting activities apparently took note, and a bit of history has just been made.

Melody Barnes played golf with the president Sunday. Other women had joined Obama on the links during the campaign, but the president's top domestic policy adviser was the first to do so since he took office.

Jewel Samad, AFP / Getty Images

Chief domestic policy adviser Melody Barnes carries her golf bag to join President Obama on the links Sunday.

They teed off at Virginia's Fort Belvoir just hours after The New York Times published a feature suggesting Obama's testosterone-charged White House feels "like a frat house."

Some conservative bloggers dismissed the article as a "snort-worthy shill piece" and a failed attempt to "butch up Obama." A "feminist feeding frenzy" is how American Power's Donald Douglas described the "guy thing" backlash against Obama.

ABC's Jake Tapper noted that while it's much ado about nothing on one level, there is also real concern among some Democratic women about perceptions of "a certain fratty cluelessness" within Team Obama. A few high-level female staffers have told Politics Daily's Lynn Sweet -- one of the pool reporters for Sunday's shattering of the "grass ceiling" -- they feel there is a boys club environment at the White House.

No photos or video from Obama's coed round of golf was released, so there's no way to compare their games. And there's no word on whether Barnes shot a better round than her boss. The president isn't one to let an opponent win just because she's a woman. The first lady told Jay Leno on Friday that her husband's most annoying habit is that he frequently beats her at tennis. But in official Washington's most important sport -- the competition for access to the president -- Melody Barnes was Sunday's big winner.