WASHINGTON — When Barack Obama teed off in Waimanalo, Hawaii, on Sunday, his golf partner was a 24-year-old campaign veteran who has risen to become one of Obama's closest confidants.

Eugene Kang, who was photographed on the course with Obama with his red golf shirt tucked in (while Obama was sporting cargo shorts — what's with that?), is among a small coterie of aides accompanying the president-elect on his vacation.

His official duties including helping connect Obama with political leaders and elected officials across the country. He's so close to the president-elect that some call him "Reggie Jr.," after Obama's ever-present personal assistant, Reggie Love.

It's been a meteoric rise. As a college junior, Kang ran unsuccessfully for a City Council seat in Ann Arbor, Mich. He worked for Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on the 2006 campaign that landed her in the Senate before he joined Obama's campaign, where he worked on Obama's outreach programs to Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

That alone can't account for his ascent. Maybe it isn't lost on the president-elect that Kang has a good drive. He apparently played on his high school golf team.