By Rob Crilly, Chief U.S. Political Correspondent For Dailymail.Com In Washington, D.C.
21:33 03 Jul 2024, updated 22:45 03 Jul 2024
- A question about age descended into bickering about golf in last week’s debate
- Joe Biden challenged Donald Trump to a round if he carried his own bag
- READ MORE: Follow along for U.S. politics live updates
It was one of the oddest moments of last week’s presidential debate: Two elderly men arguing about their prowess on the golf course.
It ended with President Joe Biden, 81, challenging his predecessor Donald Trump, 78, to a round.
And voters overwhelmingly believe Trump would win, according to an exclusive poll for DailyMail.com.
It found that 52 percent of likely voters believed the former president (and golf club owner) would beat Biden. Only 16 percent thought the Democratic candidate would win.
Even Democrats are not much convinced of their candidate’s chances over 18 holes. A third say he would win, while 26 percent thought he would lose.
With so much at stake in November’s election, including democracy according to Biden, it is possible that the other 41 percent of Democrats who said ‘don’t know’ may just have thought that the question was stupid.
But it reflects a central question facing voters after Biden’s halting debate performance: Is he up to the strains of the job?
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Both men are keen golfers and Trump used his hobby to push back on questions about how he would fare at the end of a second presidential term, when he would be 82 years old.
‘I just won two club championships — not even senior, two regular club championships,’ he boasted.
‘To do that, you have to be quite smart, and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way. And I do it. He doesn’t do it. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards.’
Biden took a swing back saying he would be happy to take on Trump in a ‘driving contest.’
‘I got my handicap, when I was vice president, down to a six,’ he said, before jabbing at Trump, who is frequently pictured on his own courses in a golf cart with a caddy never far away.
‘And by the way, I told you before, I’m happy to play golf if you carry your own bag. Think you can do it?’
Trump scoffed at Biden’s handicap.
‘That’s the biggest lie—that he’s a six-handicap—of all,’ he said.
As if none of that were childish enough, when Trump added: ‘Let’s not act like children,’ Biden responded: ‘You are a child.’
Trump’s love of golf is well-known. He frequently played during his winter weekends at Mar-a-Lago in Florida or summer breaks to Bedminster, his course in New Jersey.
Some of his most animated appearances at the White House included visits by golfing great Tiger Woods, and in 2018 he played at his West Palm Beach course with legend Jack Nicklaus.
Biden plays less frequently, but is a member at the Fieldstone Golf Club near his Delaware home.
To test what voters thought of the pair’s skills, J.L. Partners polled 1,000 likely voters online. The results carry a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 points.