With all the jabs back and forth over golf during the first 2024 presidential debate, author and former White House official Douglas MacKinnon thought he would challenge former President Donald Trump to a round. After having the challenge accepted, he soon found the experience nothing short of astounding.
During the June debate, the two candidates traded barbs over their respective golf games. Trump said that winning a pair of golf championships is evidence that his cognitive abilities are just fine.
Trump brags about passing a cognitive test meant to detect cognitive decline and claims he just two club championships pic.twitter.com/4lzOW8Tzrl
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 28, 2024
In response, Biden made the false claim that he has a “6 handicap” and insisted he could beat Trump on the links.
Biden claims he was a 6 handicap...
— The Maine Wire (@TheMaineWire) June 28, 2024
Biggest lie of the night? pic.twitter.com/I9icPoou1L
After the debate, Trump offered to host a golf competition between himself and Biden. Naturally, Biden refused the invitation.
With all that golf talk swirling around, MacKinnon decided to see if he could secure a day on the links with the former president to observe his athleticism on the course. And he came away extremely impressed by Trump’s expertise, his stamina, and his level of excellence.
MacKinnon hit the driving range with Trump on July 10 at his course in Jupiter, Florida. And the first thing MacKinnon noticed was Trump’s consistent performance off the tee.
“The driving display the former president put on was jaw-dropping amazing. It simply was. Not only was he able to stripe his drives down the middle at will, but shape them left and right. All while consistently hitting them 270 yards and longer., MacKinnon wrote in an op-ed for Fox News.
MacKinnon went on to put Trump’s drive in perspective:
To put his driving prowess into perspective, let’s look at the average driving distance for male golfers as compiled in a recent USGA and R&A study. Golfers with a handicap between 13 and 20 average 200 yards; Golfers between the high single digits and low double digits average just shy of 220 yards; and Golfers with a handicap below six, average just shy of 240 yards.
At 78 years of age, Trump is still driving the ball as far as many stars on the Champions Tour and some golfers on the PGA Tour. More than that, he is still regularly breaking 80 – and often 70 – from 6,700 to 6,800 yards.
“Once again, politics aside, Trump truly is a phenom when it comes to the game of golf,” MacKinnion added.
The author also noted that golf is a game of strategy and thought. Good golfers have to “think their way” through the game, MacKinnion noted. Trump is as good as any pro golfer at thinking his way through a game of golf.
MacKinnion explained that “to play golf at a consistently high level does take stamina and thinking.” And Donald Trump is more than capable of this high level of play.
All this speaks to Donald Trump’s stamina. At the age of 78, he is still able to ply the sticks with endless energy on the course, proving that his stamina is at tip-top levels.
So, it seems a safe bet that Joe Biden would have looked the weaker of the two if the pair had ever hit the links together. It is no wonder his staff would not allow him to accept Trump’s golf challenge.
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