OPINION:
No longer encumbered by elections, President Obama has let his golf game swing in his second term. Mr. Obama played golf a staggering 46 times in 2013, one-third more games than his second-highest year on the greens in 2011.
The president just wrapped up a golf-a-rama in Hawaii during which he hit the links nine times in 17 days.
He played five times at the Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay, twice at the private Mid Pacific Country Club in Lanikai and once each at the Ko’olau Golf Club and the Royal Hawaiian Golf Club.
This brought his presidency total to 160 golf games.
Mr. Obama’s second the first year of his second term with five rounds in January— two during his annual vacation in Hawaii and three on a weekend trip to Florida.
He didn’t play during the winter Washington, D.C., but once it warmed up, he hit the links weekly.
From the end of March until the end of September, Mr. Obama played golf every weekend except the day after the Boston Marathon bombing and when he was in Korea. Even after the weather cooled, he fit in two more rounds in October and three in November (once in sunny Florida).
The president is clearly aware of the optics of his disappearing onto a golf course, so he decreases the outings in election years. He played 27 times in 2009, 31 times in 2010, 34 times in 2011 but only 19 times in 2012.
Mr. Obama can choose to spend five to six hours a week on the greens during his second term, or he can show the American people that his focus is on fixing Obamacare and the economy.
However, since he has played golf three times in the first four days of 2014, it’s unlikely he cares much what voters think anymore.
Emily Miller is senior editor of opinion for The Washington Times and author of “Emily Gets Her Gun” (Regnery, 2013).
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