Here's how Sean Spicer defended President Donald Trump's frequent golf outings

President Donald Trump loves to play golf. He is as intertwined in the sport as any president who has ever sat in the White House, and that golf habit has stayed steady since Trump took office in January.

Here is CNN on Trump’s golf outings.

Now that Trump is President, the comments are coming back to complicate his golf habit. Trump has visited the two courses near his Mar-a-Lago estate -- Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach and Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter -- 10 times in the first two months of his presidency.

On Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer defended Trump’s rate of play -- after Trump previously criticized President Barack Obama for playing golf often -- as well as his trips to his own golf courses to work.

“It’s the same reason he can have lunch or dinner with somebody,” Spicer told reporters at the White House. “The president is entitled to a bit of privacy at this point, which we’ve always agreed to. We bring the protective pool, but the president is entitled to a bit of privacy as well.”

Spicer said that Trump is using golf differently than President Obama.

“You saw him utilize this as an opportunity with [Japanese] Prime Minister [Shinzō] Abe to help foster a deeper relationship in southeast Asia, in Asia rather, and have a growing relationship that’s going to help U.S. interests,” Spicer said.

“On a couple of occasions, he’s actually conducted meetings there, he’s had phone calls,” Spicer added. “Just because he heads there doesn’t mean that’s what’s happening.”

The golf world and the political world collided earlier this year when Trump teed it up on a Sunday with No. 2 golfer in the world Rory McIlroy.