Time.news – The president Joe Biden played golf for the first time in his presidency, treading the fairways of Wilmington, his hometown. The procession of the prediente dem arrived at Wilmington Country Club unannounced, around lunchtime. Surprised, members of the luxury private club are stopped and some have taken out their cell phones to film the show.
Reporters traveling with Biden were unable to see the president play. The White House said Biden’s gaming partners were Ron Olivere, father-in-law of Biden’s late son, Beau, and senior adviser Steve Ricchetti.
This wasn’t just the first time Biden has devoted a day to golf since taking over from Trump in January, but probably the first time many Americans have realized he plays. Biden has kept silent about his golfing skills, in contrast to the overtly boastful Trump, who has played as often as possible during his tenure.
“He loves the game, he plays and he respects it,” golf architect Robert Trent Jones, who designed the Wilmington course, told Morning Read. When he was vice president under Barack Obama, Golf Digest wrote that he had an impressive handicap of six.
Biden’s return to the game comes at the end of a hectic week in which he announced sanctions against Russia, ha met with the prime minister of Japan to the White House and caused controversy with a chaotic attempt to define its policy on the acceptance of refugees in the United States.
But with the launch of the coronavirus vaccine booming and a Pew poll giving it a 59% approval rating, Biden may have felt it was time to relax.