Donald Trump visited the golf course for the 129th, 130th and 131st times as President
Golf and Politics

Donald Trump visited the golf course for the 130th, 131st and 132nd times as President



Donald Trump paid a weekend visit from July 19-22 to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., to spend the weekend outside of the nation's capital following the worst week of his presidency. The visit marked the 129th, 130th and 131st times 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. He has now paid 132 visits to any golf course as President.

Trump arrived at his New Jersey flagship club on Friday, preparing to spend the full weekend at his club as issues swirl concerning his handling of a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, his performance at a NATO summit, his handling of the aftermath of the Helsinki visit and ensuing news conference, as well the revelation of the existence of tapes made by lawyer Michael Cohen concerning paying off a former Playboy model.

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. Typically, the White House press pool indicates when Trump arrives at his golf clubs, then they are held in a holding location until Trump is done and moves to his next location.

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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 21.2 percent of his presidency. He ended 2017 with 91 golf course visits and was just shy of 100 visits in Year 1 as President.

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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