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I had the pleasure of meeting President G.W.Bush a couple of weeks before 9/11, when he was spending the part of August and September at the ranch (about 10 miles from my house as the crow flies). Secret Service contacted us and said the Prez would like to come over and play golf the following Monday morning and would like to have a couple of the local players to meet him and go around with him. It was quite an experience to see what all was involved in making that happen. A couple of Agents came down on Friday afternoon and met with myself, the other 2 guys, the course manager, and some of the local Law Enforcement Chiefs and Sheriff, and explained that we were not to say anything about it to anyone ahead of time. We would be allowed to bring our families out to meet him also, but asked us not to tell them about it until Sunday night. We needed to be at the course at 6:30am in order for everyone to be ID'd and cleared...Bush would arrive at 7:30 and we'd tee off about 8:00. Sunday evening about an hour before dark, ten 15 passenger vans arrived with SS agents dressed in all black combat gear and they spread out around the perimeter of the property about every 50 yards and remained there all night to make sure no one entered the property (this is not in a residential area) but surrounded on 3 sides by native pasture/woods and third side by a river. When we arrived the next morning, there were an additional 20-25 plain clothes agents in khakis and golf shirts waiting for us. They ID'd everyone then took cameras, golf bags, purses, etc...into a large semi trailer full of communications and security equipment, to be examined and searched, then each family group was assigned to a particular agent that walked with them at all times and answered questions about the job...what was "ok" to do as for as pictures and autographs etc... all very low keyed and friendly. At the appointed time we heard a helicopter approaching, and it was two Blackhawk choppers flying above a convoy of five Suburbans which were book-ended by two Texas DPS Troopers on the front and back of the Suburbans. As the group turned off the main road into the entrance drive (about 1/4 mile long from main road) the DPS units stopped and parked across the roadway blocking access. the helicopters flared off and landed at the airport about 6 miles away and waited until he was ready to leave. The Suburbans parked in line and Pres. Bush, stepped out of the center one and the others were carrying more agents that stayed close to him as he walked over to our group to introduce himself. He was very laid back and friendly to everyone and after quick round of intros and handshakes he asked if he could spend a few minutes with the kids...took them over to the porch and sat down with them and answered questions from them about being President, had one of the agents bring him some golf balls with POTUS seal and signed them for our kids, then posed for pics with each of them individually and together. The agents that had arrived in the convoy, had all loaded up some bags onto their golf carts that didn't look quite like our golf bags...I asked one of them what he had in the bag...the latest oversized titanium driver? He laughed and said "well it DOES have some titanium, and a few other alloys, but it'll reach out there a lot farther than your drives". Then we played golf and afterwards he took pics with some of the course employees and the local LEO's. He really was a very easy going and a nice guy....easy to be around and after 30 minutes everyone was just acting normal...joking...needling each other a little on a bad shot and so forth. I made a comment to "my agent" about being surprised at the planning that had to go into him playing a round of golf...about 200 agents...some standing in the treeline all night and half the day,...the helicopters, and all. He laughed and said "this is about as perfect a set-up as we can have...far enough off the main road that we don't have to worry about someone crashing through the fence onto the course...no buildings or tall structures around we have to secure...no line of sight from any roadways....not like most golf courses where you have houses lining every fairway that have to be secured also...just establish a secure perimeter and if anyone flies in the vicinity while we are here, the helo's will keep them from approaching closer than 3 miles...piece of cake compared to most of our outings." We all had a good time and before they loaded up he said he'd like to come back again around Thanksgiving when they'd be at the ranch for a couple of weeks...then 9/11 hit and that was the end of his golfing for a long time.