How much did Obama spend golfing in both years
Executive summary
The clearest, government-backed figure tied to a presidential golf weekend is the Government Accountability Office’s estimate that the departments of Defense and Homeland Security spent more than $3.6 million supporting President Obama’s four‑day February 2013 trip that included a round with Tiger Woods [1]. Broader tallies that aggregate vacations and golf over his two terms put total taxpayer costs in the same ballpark as roughly $85 million across eight years, which averages to about $10.6 million per year — a different kind of metric and not a line‑by‑line “golf only” bill [2].
1. The headline number: $3.6 million for the 2013 Tiger Woods weekend
A GAO audit released after the fact found that the Defense and Homeland Security departments accounted for more than $3.6 million in travel and support costs for Obama’s February 2013 trip to Illinois and Florida — the Florida leg included playing golf with Tiger Woods — and that total is the one most reporters cited when quoting the “nearly $4 million” figure [1] [3] [4].
2. What that $3.6 million actually covers — and what it doesn’t
The GAO’s $3.6 million is an aggregate of aviation operating costs, supporting aircraft and boats, per diem and travel for supporting personnel, and other logistics for the trip’s Florida and Illinois legs; it is not an invoice that says “golf: $3.6M” and the GAO itself and subsequent fact‑checks note the outing with Woods was part of a multi‑leg trip, so the $3.6M cannot be cleanly attributed as the exclusive cost of a single round of golf [3] [5].
3. Larger tallies: $85 million across eight years and the per‑year math
Analyses published near the end of Obama’s presidency compiled costs for vacations, travel and security across his eight years and reached estimates in the neighborhood of $85 million total; dividing that headline figure by eight yields roughly $10.6 million per year as a simple average, but that number mixes vacations, fundraising travel and broader presidential movements, not a strict “golf only” annual ledger [2].
4. Conflicting tallies and advocacy group estimates — why numbers vary
Conservative groups such as Judicial Watch have produced higher or differently framed estimates (for example, highlighting flight‑hour accounting or specific Air Force One legs) and media outlets have used different scopes (flight costs alone, DOD + DHS expenses, or total White House travel), producing figures like $2.9M or “millions” for particular trips; these discrepancies reflect differing methodologies, what agencies’ costs are included, and whether classified or internal Pentagon accounting elements are excluded [6] [7].
5. The necessary caveats: accounting formulas, classified costs, and media framing
Multiple outlets and a Snopes analysis warn that per‑hour aircraft cost formulas and the way support missions are allocated can be misleading if quoted out of context, and that some Pentagon costs are classified or not publicly broken down — so while the GAO’s $3.6M is an authoritative audit total for that trip, the precise portion that could reasonably be labeled “cost to play golf” cannot be isolated from publicly available GAO figures [5] [3].
6. Bottom line — answering “how much did Obama spend golfing in both years”
If the question targets the well‑publicized 2013 weekend that included Tiger Woods, the GAO audit reports more than $3.6 million in DOD and DHS support costs for the trip [1]. If the question instead asks for a per‑year sense across his presidency, widely cited aggregates put Obama’s vacations and related travel at about $85 million over eight years — roughly $10.6 million per year on average — but that broader number mixes multiple trip types and is not a straight “golf‑only” annual spend [2]. Sources vary because of scope and accounting choices; authoritative audits exist for specific trips, while aggregate tallies rely on differing inclusion rules [1] [2] [5].