Donald Trump and golf have been said in the same sentence multiple times in his tenure as the president of the United States. His critics have often made a point of how much he played golf, especially at crucial moments during his presidency. Trump even owns 16 golf courses. Suffices to say, he is fond of the sport. But what about his successor?

Does President Joe Biden like golf?

Biden, it would seem, is as avid a golfer as Trump. “Oh, he loves the game, plays and respects it,” said golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr., a Biden family friend who has been an occasional Biden golf partner for decades. “He’s just not the self-promoter that our current White House occupant is,” he said in 2020. As per a report, Biden started playing the sport at the age of 57, back in 2001.

As per reports, Biden has a membership at two courses in his native Delaware: the Wilmington Country Club, a 36-hole facility with courses designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Dick Wilson; and Fieldstone Golf Club, an Arthur Hills design in Greenville, which Biden lists as his home club. 

While working in Washington as a senator and vice president in the Obama administration, Biden was listed by Golf Digest as a 6.3 handicap — a numerical measure of a golfer's potential that is used to enable players of varying abilities to compete against one another. 

But is he a good golfer? 

“Joe Biden told me that he was a good golfer,” said former Ohio Governor John Kasich once. “And I’ve played golf with Joe Biden; I can tell you that’s not true, as well as all of the other things that he says.”

However, Golf Digest listed Biden as among the best golfers in the political community in Washington, DC. This was during the Obama administration. Speaking in 2014, before he was considering running for President in 2016, he told the Irish Prime Minister that running for office would doom his game. "I don't know about you, but if you want to keep your handicap in golf, don't run for president," Biden said. "So I expect strokes when we play."

According to a report, with his handicap index, Biden can be expected, “on a good day, to hang around the high-70s or low-80s. On his best day, he can probably shoot right around 75 on the right golf course in the right conditions”. The report added, however, that it's likely that Biden's skills (as he predicted) may have diminished some while campaigning to become President. “Were he to enter even his best rounds, his handicap index would likely go up substantially, closer to an eight or nine handicap,” the report said.

Rick Reilly, who wrote ‘Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump’ said in an editorial, “Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf. He cheats like a three-card Monte dealer. He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs,” adding, “In fact, he did cheat with Tiger Woods.”

Jones, in October 2020, said in the prelude to the elections, “Maybe we could just drop a debate and have them play a golf match instead. Biden would beat him. I would put money on it.”