U.S. President-elect Barack Obama took in a round of golf with a group of friends and a political adviser, Eugene Kang, on Monday as part of his 12-day holiday in Hawaii.

Reporting on his vacation, U.S. media showed Obama and the 24-year-old ethnic Korean and playing at a course in Waimanalo.

During the presidential campaign, Kang was a close assistant to the next U.S. president.

In 2005, while in university, the second generation Korean American attempted to become a city councilor for Ann Arbor, Michigan, but closely lost to his Republican rival.