President attends the first day of the Ryder Cup; the federal government has four days to a possible shutdown.

The 45th Ryder Cup, the biennial professional team competition between players from the United States and Europe, opened on Friday morning at Bethpage Black, a public golf course on Long Island, New York. The course is owned by the State of New York and operated by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. It is, by reputation, one of the most physically demanding courses in the country.

The President of the United States attended the first day’s morning session. He arrived by helicopter. He sat in a designated viewing area. His attendance was, by historical reckoning, a first: no sitting president has previously attended a Ryder Cup. The cost of the security perimeter, by Sport Bible’s accounting, was approximately $352,851 in additional public expense, before the cost of the airspace closure and the helicopter movement.

The matter on the calendar elsewhere in Washington was the federal funding lapse scheduled to take effect at midnight Tuesday. The continuing resolution was set to expire. The House and Senate had not reached an agreement. The President had not yet met with the Democratic leadership. The standard practice in the days before a possible shutdown is for the executive to remain visibly engaged in negotiations. The President’s stated rationale for attending the Ryder Cup, told to reporters on the lawn at Bethpage, was that he had heard the American team was not doing so well and he wanted to give them a pep talk.

The American team, in the event, was down 3-1 after the morning session. The deficit grew through the afternoon. The Europeans led 5.5 to 2.5 at the close of Friday’s play. The President had departed by then.

The structural matter is the calendar. The federal government runs on a fiscal year that ends September 30. The fact has been known for many decades. The continuing resolution to fund the next quarter is the standard instrument. The instrument requires the executive and the legislative branches to negotiate. The negotiation occurs, by tradition, in the days preceding the lapse. The Friday before the Tuesday lapse, in this instance, was a day on which the President was at a golf tournament on Long Island. The pep talk did not prevent the deficit. The shutdown, on the other calendar, came when it came.

A serious country’s executive does not need to be in the Oval Office at every hour of every day. A serious country’s executive does, however, need to be findable on the days when the government’s funding runs out. The President was findable. He was, on Friday, on Long Island, watching a foursome lose.

Calmly documenting the decline.