President Obama played his 300th round of golf as commander in chief this past weekend, according to CBS White House correspondent Mark Knoller.
Obama hit the course Sunday afternoon at the Farm Neck Golf Club in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, with Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul, White House aide Joe Paulsen, and Washington lawyer Cy Walker.
Pres Obama & @LAClippers Chris Paul watch fellow golfers finish putting on 1st hole of @POTUS 300th round of golf. pic.twitter.com/51VJyf3Wjf
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) August 7, 2016
Obama was heavily criticized two years ago when he went golfing in Martha’s Vineyard moments after publicly condemning the Islamic State terror group for beheading American journalist James Foley in a videoed execution.
Obama said during an August 2014 press conference while on vacation that ISIS follows a "bankrupt ideology" and has "no place in the 21st century" before heading to the course.
Critics, including Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus, condemned Obama for hastily returning to his vacation after addressing the gruesome attack.
A month later the president said he made a mistake.
"It is always a challenge when you’re supposed to be on vacation," Obama said on NBC in September 2014. "There’s no doubt that, after having talked to the families, where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going through, after the statement that I made, that you know, I should’ve anticipated the optics."
The 44th president also received criticism in July 2014 for hitting the golf course days after Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in Russia.
Obama told CBS in 2009 that golfing provided him a sense of freedom.
"You almost feel normal, in the sense that you’re not in the bubble," he said.
Obama was golfing at Andrews Air Force Base this past May when the Secret Service shot an armed man outside of a White House security gate, forcing the building to lockdown.