Donald Trump visited the golf course for the 100th time as President
Golf and Politics

Donald Trump visited the golf course for the 100th time as President



Donald Trump made a Feb. 19 Presidents' Day visit to his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. The visit marked the 99th time the 45th President has visited one of his 17 golf clubs (and, for most of them, presumably played some golf) since becoming President on Jan. 20, 2017. This is his 100th visit to any golf course as President.

Trump arrived in Florida on Friday evening, spending time with victims of and first responders to the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. He abstained from golf on Saturday and Sunday, according to Bloomberg, out of respect for the victims of the incident that killed 17. On Monday, Trump arrived at his golf club at 9:10 a.m.

RELATED: Why how often Trump plays golf matters

The White House doesn't typically acknowledge Trump was even playing golf. That is commonplace policy, particularly when Trump isn't playing with celebrities or pro golfers or doesn't have something to flaunt.

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All but one round of golf has been at his clubs, playing once in Japan in Nov. 2017 with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Japanese star pro Hideki Matsuyama.

So far, Trump has been on the golf course or his clubs during some portion of the day for 26.2 percent of his presidency. He ended 2017 with 91 golf course visits, though it's unlikely he'll reach 100 in his first year in office, which concludes on Jan. 20, 2018 at 11:59 p.m.

The Trump Administration, per typical policy, does not acknowledge that Trump is playing even a hole of golf, much less an 18-hole round. However, if he's going to the golf club for about 4-5 hours, you can be pretty sure he's playing golf. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has asked the White House to provide the names of Trump's golf partners, as well for his clubs to provide visitor logs to get a sense of when Trump has played golf and with whom.

The President is certainly entitled to some leisure time, and golf has been an outlet for most Commanders-in-Chief dating back to the early 20th century. However, the reluctance to even acknowledge that this President plays golf conflicts with his almost relentless criticism of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who played an estimated 333 rounds of golf as President.

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Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is currently a +2.6 USGA handicap, and he has covered dozens of major championships and professional golf tournaments. He likes writing about golf and making it more accessible by answering the complex questions fans have about the pro game or who want to understand how to play golf better.

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