on the golf course

Hi,
In the passage below dealing with announced industrial action by British doctors, is the “on the golf course” same as “loafing”? Is it a newly-coined idiom?
Thank you.

Q. Will doctors be on the golf course?
A. Doctors are instructed to be at their workplace in order that they are available for urgent cases. The BMA says patients turning up at their GP’s surgery who say they need “urgent” treatment will be seen.

I would not class it as an idiom or set expression, but it fairly clearly means engaged in some leisure activity, rather than working, with golf chosen as a typical example of what doctors might be doing on a day off.