While Friday's job report revealed that the U.S. economy only added 88,000 jobs in March, President Obama has played golf for the second weekend in a row.
Mr Obama took to the greens at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on Saturday afternoon with White House aides Marvin Nicholson, Joe Paulsen, and Michael Brush, according to ABC News.
The president made his first golfing trip since the sequester cuts a week earlier, and famously teed off with Tiger Woods on a secretive getaway to Florida in February.
On the green: President Obama played golf for the second weekend in a row on Saturday (as pictured in this file photo). Mr Obama also played in February when an aide carried a golf bag onto Air Force One
Last week Obama's motorcade took him directly from the same golf course at Andrews Air Force Base in suburban Maryland to Washington's Verizon Center to watch Syracuse and Marquette play for a berth in the Final Four of the NCAA basketball tournament.
On that occasion the president played with Chicago businessman Marty Nesbitt and again with staffers Brush and Nicholson.
Some conservatives have called on Obama to give up golf, especially since popular public tours of the White House have been canceled because of the budget cuts.
The White House has said the tours were canceled to keep Secret Service agents from being furloughed because of the spending reductions.
Fun: President Obama lines up a putt on the first green at Andrews Air Force Base in June 2011
ABC quoted Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as saying: 'The president will use up more Secret Service time guarding him while he golfs than it would take to keep the White House tours open all year.'
But New York Mayor rose to Mr Obama's defense, saying that the gold course was an ideal place for networking.
'I find it fascinating, people criticize him for taking people to dinner - he should be doing that every night. They criticize him for going and playing golf with people who he's got to deal with.
'He should be doing that every weekend. You always can work better with somebody that you have a chance to build a social relationship with,' Bloomberg said on CBS's Face The Nation, as reported by CNN.
In February the president spoke publicly about playing with Tiger Woods having returned to the highest office in the land after spending President’s Day weekend on the golf course.
‘He’s on another planet,’ marveled the president about his experience of teeing off with the 14-times major champion and current world number two.
'He plays a different game than I do,' Obama told ABC7. 'I don't think either party was nervous, he knew that I wasn't a big threat to his world ranking and I knew that I better keep my day job.'
The two met up for their first-ever round together at a luxury golf resort in Florida.
Mutual appreciation society: President Obama with Tiger Woods at the White House in 2009 - the pair have praised each others golfing abilities
Woods and Obama defeated US trade representative Ron Kirk and Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, who also owned the resort course where the four played away from the eyes of the media.
The president is an enthusiastic weekend golfer, but his score card, like much else about the trip, was shrouded in secrecy.
The traveling pool of journalists who follow the President's every move were reportedly furious after being shut out the club grounds.
Ed Henry, of Fox News and president of the White House Correspondents Association said the media outlets were merely hoping for 'a brief exception, quick access, a quick photo-op on the 18th green.'
'Speaking on behalf of the White House Correspondents Association, I can say a broad cross section of our members from print, radio, online and TV have today expressed extreme frustration to me about having absolutely no access to the President of the United States the entire weekend,' Henry said.
'There is a very simple but important principle we will continue to fight for today and in the days ahead: transparency.'
He added, 'It’s not about golf - it’s about transparency and access in a broader sense.'
Back in the swing of things: President Obama waves in the doorway of Air Force One as he departs from Palm Beach International Airport on Monday
But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted the press who complained about being barred from the president's 'boy's weekend'.
At a press conference on Rikers Island Mayor Bloomberg said: 'I don’t know why you, the press, have a God-given right to follow him every minute.
'I don’t know why the president has to have people watch what he does. He has a right to a vacation. You take a vacation occasionally, you don’t work 24/7. He does. He works very hard and he certainly has a right to his private life.'
It has long been a White House tradition that pool reporters cover the President's rounds of golf and even have the opportunity for a few questions on the course.
The president waved as he jogged up the steps of Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in February while a White House aide heaved golf clubs and large bags on board.
When he landed back in Washington and walked across the White House lawn, several frustrated reporters collectively shouted to the President to ask if he had beaten Tiger Woods. He did not respond.
Bags of fun: An aide heaves several golf bags up the stairs of Air Force One
The outrage over the lack of transparency comes as much of the bill for the pricey trip will be paid for by tax payers, yet President Obama did not feel it appropriate to even release one photo of his time out on the course.
The president played with the notorious philanderer after getting a private lesson from Woods' former coach the day before.
However the only inside reports about the rounds came from a golf journalist who happened to be in the clubhouse at the time.
Despite being excluded from the golf game itself press were not left without a story following the round played by the president and the golfing star.
Tiger Woods chose to be complimentary when asked about the course skills of the most powerful man in the world at a press conference after a practice round at the WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championship in Arizona .
'He’s got amazing touch,' said Woods. 'He can certainly chip and putt. If he ever spent - after these four years - spent more time playing the game of golf, I’m sure he could get to where he’s a pretty good stick.,' said the world's number two golfer somewhat diplomatically.
Asked if the president and Woods had squared up against each other over 18-holes, the 14-time major winner revealed that Mr. Obama had been his partner in a foursome against U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Houston Astros owner Jim Crane.
Home again: President Barack Obama waves to members of the media as walks across the South Lawn of the White House following his arrival on Marine One helicopter on Monday night
'He was my partner, and as I said, we won,' said a smiling Woods.
'Playing with Mr. President was pretty cool,' Woods said. 'He’s just a wonderful person to be around. We won.'
Quizzed further on the leader of the free world's golfing abilities, Woods praised the president's fitness.
'He’s a pretty good athlete, and we all know he played a lot of hoops,' said Woods.
He sounded surprised to learn that Obama played left-handed, and when asked to describe the president's best shot, Woods said: 'He hit a few.
'He’s a lefty, but to see him out hitting shots - he hit it well, and we didn’t play under the easiest conditions.'
Pushed on how he got the invitation, Woods said: 'He calls up and says, 'Hey Tiger you wanna play?'
'Obviously there is a process that's involved, and I was invited to play, and it was an invitation that certainly you don't turn down, especially [since] he's an avid golfer, and so am I.
'So we went out there and we had just a great round of golf with Ron and Jim, and it was a good day.'
On the course: CNN was the only network to air footage of President Obama during one of his golf outings, but it does not appear to be whilet he played with Tiger Woods
Using his lessons: Obama spent three days in Florida over the President's Day weekend
One last round: President Obama (seen in the white cap) played an estimated five or six rounds in three days
HOW MUCH IT COSTS FOR A PRESIDENTIAL BOYS WEEKEND
$943,687.50: Estimated cost of a trip for Air Force One from Chicago to West Palm Beach and then back to Washington, D.C.
$13,500: Cost to rent out three four-bedroom guest cottages at The Floridian for three nights
$24,000: Cost of an eight-hour private golf lesson with famed instructor Butch Harmon
$1,800: Greens fees for three guests for two rounds of golf
$1,600: Cost of four caddies for two rounds of golf
$4,620: Cost of 20 rooms at the Port St. Lucie Holiday Inn for traveling press and security detail based on the government day rate
TOTAL: $989,207
ABC News reported that in 2012, it cost $179,750 per flight hour to run Air Force One.
Using that rate - even though it is likely higher now since gas prices have risen - the cost of the flights to Florida and back to Washington on Monday totaled $943,687.50.
He rented out all three of the four-bedroom guest cottages on the grounds of The Floridian for the whole of the long weekend, as well about 20 hotel rooms from the nearby Holiday Inn- which is about 20 minutes drive from the course - for his traveling entourage and security.
Expectantly, their price differentials are significant, as one night in a guest cottage costs $1,500 while the Holiday Inn told MailOnline that they charged the government a day rate of $77 per room.
On top of the logistical expenses, the whole point of the trip was to relax on the golf course, which involves a whole host of expenses in itself.
Guest greens fees at The Floridian are $300 per person, and each player hires a caddy who costs $200 per round.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (L) and U.S. President Barack Obama(R) chat after completing the first hole during a golf game at Joint Base Andrews, MD, September 24, 2011
For three guests to play two rounds of golf over the weekend, greens fees come to $1,800 and the caddies fees for the foursome total $1,600.
Another personal expense that Mr Obama racked up came from the eight hour one-on-one lesson with golf pro Mr Harmon. Since those lessons typically cost $3,000, that means that Mr Obama's bill came to a tidy $24,000 after his intensive session on Saturday.
During his stay, the President never left the grounds of the golf club, meaning that his transportation and security costs were kept to a minimum. A spokesman for the nearby police department said that they had not been asked by the Secret Service to provide any additional security.
While this is the first time that the President has played golf with Woods - who has won the most titles in the storied sport - it is not the first time that they have met.
The disgraced golfer did a reading at one of President Obama's inaugural festivities in 2009 and followed that up with a visit to the White House.
Sounds like he is better at golf than basketball: Barack Obama and his love affair with shooting hoops
In David Maraniss's 2012 biography of President Obama he especially looked at his enduring love affair with basketball.
Traveling to Punahou, an elite prep school in Hawaii to discover what his classmates made of his skills, Maraniss discovered that he wasn't that good:
'If Obama was unhappy about his playing time, the truth is he had to work exceedingly hard just to make the team. He made it more because of his intense passion for the game -- his will -- than anything else. …The reality was that Barry, as skilled and intelligent a player as he was, could not stand out in this group. He had good court sense and an ability to slash to the basket, but was an unreliable outside shooter and not much of a jumper...
'Decades later, a story emerged that his nickname was Barry O’Bomber, playing off his last name and a propensity to fire away from long range, but few team members recalled that nickname… and said the real gunner was Darin Maurer, who was better than Obama but barely got more playing time…
'He loved basketball so much, I think a lot of things have been blown out of proportion,” said [former teammate Alan] Lum. … [W]hen it came down to playing time, he [Barry] wasn’t one of the five best.” In fact, Lum and other teammates pointed out, Barry was only occasionally considered one of the top eight…
'Obama…was also among the most earthbound – he could not jump high enough to dunk the ball. “Barry’s lack of ups was obvious,” recalled [former player Tom] Topolinski. In fact, [coach Chris] McLachlin coined a phrase for the phenomenon: Barry Obama, famous for his no-jump jump shot!
