It was a surreal detour in a presidential debate already filled with bizarre exchanges and incoherent rhetoric. On Thursday night, after sparring over the economy, abortion and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump sparred over … golf.
“I just won two club championships. Not the senior level, but I won two regular club championships,” Trump boasted in response to a question about turning 82 at the end of his second term as president. “You've got to be pretty smart to do that, you've got to be able to hit the ball a long way, and I can do that. He can't. He can't hit the ball 50 yards.”
Biden, 81, declared that he would “love to have a driving contest” with Trump.
“While I was vice president, I lowered my handicap to a six,” the president said, referring to a system for comparing golfers' abilities: the lower the number, the better the player.
“By the way, I told you before, I'd be happy to play golf if you'd let me carry my bag,” Biden continued, telling Trump, “Do you think you can do that?”
Trump, 78, regularly uses a cart. He did not respond to the specific challenge, instead mocking it, saying “the biggest lie of all is that he has six disabilities.”
It may not have been surprising that golf, a ritual dear to many presidents, especially Trump, came up during the debate, but the spat was widely criticized as a pointless frivolous act of two old dudes trying to pit themselves against each other.
Few presidents have been more closely associated with golf than Trump. His family company owns a coveted collection of golf courses, which he often brags about when playing in events associated with the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Series, which has held tournaments on Trump properties. (He is reluctant to discuss the fact that he has been alienated by parts of the professional golf world in recent years, especially since the Jan. 6 riots.)
Over the years, Trump has enjoyed playing with major championship winners such as Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, demonstrating his ability even on days when he didn't strictly adhere to the rules and etiquette of the game.
“Not bad, right?” Trump asked me during a speech in Doral, Florida, in 2022. “I mean, it's about right, well, pretty good. Anyway, let me wrap up this victory.”
Long before Thursday's debate, he had been noting and skeptical of Biden's golfing prowess, despite his history of bending the rules of the game to suit his own whims.
“Can Biden do that?” Trump tweeted to me after hitting some shots at the course in Bedminster, N.J. “He says he's a six handicap. He's not a six handicap.”
Biden has been a longtime golfer but has recently taken a more modest approach to his game, getting on the course less frequently than his predecessor. (“The course record's still not broken,” he told reporters after his first round as president.)
By comparison, according to United States Golf Association records, which typically rely on self-reported scores, Biden's handicap was 6.7 in 2018 and Trump's was 2.5 in 2021.