“Oh noooo!” exclaims Auma Obama right after the tee. She squints in the evening sun on the golf course as her ball flies toward the water. “I’m short-sighted,” she says. “Is the ball in the water?” Is he. Obama puts the club back in the golf bag, gets into the electric golf cart and drives off. After about 50 meters she hits the brakes, goes to the small pond, which is rather unromantically called “water hazard” on the golf course, and measures two club lengths from the bank, as the rules require. Then she pulls out a new ball and starts to hit again, which counts double as a penalty.
The 63-year-old only discovered golf for herself a few years ago. “I always thought only rich people play golf,” she says. Then, in 2016, she raised funds for her foundation at a charity golf tournament in Germany and was asked to pose for the photographers, although she didn’t know how to do it. At the next donation tournament, she then took a golf taster course and won second prize there. She got her handicap, a kind of driver’s license that you need to be able to tee off at all, and, as she says herself, played rarely and quite badly until she became a member of a club in Kenya in 2019. When she’s at home, she goes there at least once a week, often two or three times.
Barack Obama didn’t meet her until she was 24
Obama is an author, keynote speaker, founder and CEO of the Sauti Kuu Foundation, and is also the half-sister of former US President Barack Obama. They have the same father, but because he left the family before they were born and went to the USA, where he remarried, Auma and Barack only met in 1984, when she was 24 and he was 23. Auma Obama lived in Germany for 16 years , studied German in Heidelberg and finally did his doctorate in Bayreuth. After the publication of her autobiography “Life always comes between” in 2010, she was often a guest on German talk shows. In 2021 she took part in the RTL show “Let’s Dance”.
At the beginning of June, Auma Obama was standing on the course of the Cologne Golf and Country Club on the outskirts of Bergisch Gladbach. Lush green lawns and small wooded areas alternate on an area of 75 hectares. Auma Obama wears dark sports trousers, sneakers and a polo shirt and cap – each with a pink accent. It’s early evening, but she wants to play all 18 holes. The last two are already dark.
On the square, Obama is on first name terms with everyone, and she even treats strangers warmly. Before teeing off, she waves the players behind her through to overtake. “Nice game!” she wishes. And guides the surrounding people out of their field of fire. “Golf is a dangerous sport, people have been killed by a ball. You have to know where to stand.” As the players tee off, she falls silent. She doesn’t want to bother: “I like games that have to do with accuracy,” she whispers. The concentration that golf requires and the exercise in nature help her to relax. “You can’t think about work while playing golf.” Last year she had a burnout, sport brought peace back into her life.
“The golf course is my happy place,” says Auma Obama.
(Photo: Kathrin Hollmer)
As a non-golfer, it’s hard to understand the frustration when a ball lands in the water like it just did. And that this anger should then be relaxing. She just had a long drawn-out “Nooo!” after the tee shot. called, a few minutes later she is beaming because of a good shot. She actually wanted to talk about her passion on the golf course, but then she hardly gets to talk between the tees. “We golfers always say: The golf ball is like a jealous partner: If you don’t give it your full attention, it will pay you back – and you play badly.” Sometimes she is there early in the morning, before work. “After that I have strength again and a clear head for work. The golf course is mine happy place“.
On the way to the next hole, Obama tells the cart that she likes to play with others, but also alone. “Sometimes I’m too nervous with people I don’t know.” She finds it practical that you can play golf alone. “In many sports you are dependent on teammates, so I would always disappoint people because I travel so much.”
Obama has been living in Kenya again since 2010. With her “Sauti Kuu” (Kiswahili for “strong voices”) foundation, she helps children and young people to become more self-confident, for example with the help of sports such as football and volleyball. The children also tee off golf balls on the course. “When you play golf, you learn to keep your nerve. You have to believe in yourself, otherwise you play badly.” You also learn certain virtues: “You have to tee off on time, treat each other with respect, you can’t disturb or stop the others, and you have to be patient when you have to wait for the players in front of you.” Obama starts again, hits, a piece of grass flies through the air. “Sorry sorry sorry!” The ball rolls towards the hole. She still needs two shots to hole out.
In Kenya, she is also working on a pilot project with 200 families who earn their living as small farmers – with organic farming. That’s why she can currently be seen in the Disney plus documentary series “Farm Rebellion”. The series portrays former investment banker Benedikt Bösel, who promotes regenerative agriculture on his farm in Brandenburg. In one episode, Obama visits his farm and talks about her experiences in Kenya. “For thousands of years we kept nature intact, the water clean and the air clean, we lived well with and from nature until we started destroying it with pesticides and chemical fertilizers,” she says suddenly seriously when she enters takes a seat on a bench for a short break. “Our planet will survive, but we won’t.”
A golf course has little in common with sustainability, the water consumption in the summer months is enormous to keep the lawn so green. “I’ve only been to a place where no chemicals are deliberately used and where sheep graze – as a natural lawn mower,” says Obama. She enjoys golf, but she doesn’t just play to have fun. “The people who support me are mostly golfers, and golfers are generous,” she says. Sometimes she raises 30,000 euros in an afternoon, mainly through raffles and auctions at golf tournaments, the proceeds of which are donated. “With this I can support a lot of children and their families.”
Golf wisdom for life: “There is always a way out”
Your ball has now landed on an area filled with sand, the so-called sand bunker. change of clubs. “A friend of mine always says, ‘There’s a bat for everything,'” Obama quotes. When it comes to golf, this means there is a different iron for every distance and every surface. “You can also derive that from life. No matter what situation you are in, there is always a way out.” Of course it depends on what you make of it: how hard you hit it, how high or low the ball flies, over trees or into the water. “There are many things that can happen, it’s all so exciting!” Then there’s a “plop” and sand blows through the air. Obama purses his lips. “I didn’t get as far as I wanted,” she says, quickly smoothing the sand with a rake for the next players.
Even if she would rather be seen for her work than for her half-brother: at some point, on the golf course, Barack Obama, who is a passionate golfer himself, was mentioned. Years ago, Auma Obama revealed in an interview that he only wanted to play with her when she was good: “He needs competition.” Auma Obama’s handicap is currently 32. Anyone aged 18 or under is considered a strong amateur golfer. To this day, the half-siblings haven’t played together, she’s in the US too seldom, most of the time they see each other abroad, where they both have things to do. “But now I know I don’t have to be better, I just have to play my game.” That’s the great thing about golf: “You can play with someone who has a better handicap and still win. It’s all about being more focused.” She has provided the best proof of this herself: despite her high handicap, she has already won a tournament at her club in Nairobi.
No passion without accessories. Auma Obama needs these items on the golf course:
The shoes
“I don’t travel with my own clubs, that’s too cumbersome for me, and you can rent clubs everywhere. Sometimes I even play better with someone else’s clubs because I can concentrate more. But you definitely need comfortable shoes when golfing. Mine have ” “soft spikes” that provide support but don’t damage the turf. I only treated myself to my first clubs last year. They’re so beautiful, I’m really proud of them. You are measured so that the clubs are the optimal length for your height have.”
The “Golf Emergency Bag”
“I have my big golf bag with clubs at home, but I always have this small one with me. There is a pencil in it, with which I write down my results, and an eraser, a few balls, also so-called teas made of plastic, small pegs to help you hit the first hole, and ball markers to mark the position of the golf ball on the green. A round of golf can take a couple of hours, so I have bug spray, magnesium, headache pills and tissues with me.”
The patch
“I haven’t quite found my swing yet, sometimes I hold the club too tightly and I feel like hitting it could break my fingernail. My fingernails are a little longer than is practical for golf and are varnished. That’s why If I bandage my thumbnail with band-aid before playing, I’m no longer afraid of it breaking off.”
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