I used to watch for mentions of golf in the non-golf media, looking for signs that this was a good thing or not. Stories of deals done on courses, politicos escaping to hedge-shrouded fairways, celebrities picking up the game. Back in the go-golf late 1980s and ’90s, almost any mention of golf was ultimately a positive, luring potential new players to sporting-good stores, clubs, and (my personal favorite) newsstands.

Now I’m not so sure. After yesterday’s story in the Wall Street Journal about President Obama forsaking basketball for golf (read it here), today’s New York Times has a much more local—but no less squirm-inducing—story about former New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and his golf jones. Bruno, “who federal prosecutors say improperly mixed his political and business interests and sought to deceive the public about it,” as the Times describes it, apparently used golf as a way of drumming up his bad business. The story also mentions other well-known slimeballs who loved and used golf, including Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

It’s enough to make you want to take up…basketball?