President Donald Trump will play golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe next week, near his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump insists that Abe is his partner during the round. So as usual, the 45th president plans on winning. “We’re going to have a round of golf, which is a great thing,” Golf Digest reported. “That’s the one thing about golf — you get to know somebody better on a golf course than you will over lunch.”
Trump has a ways to go to catch up to Barack Obama, who played over 300 rounds during his two-term presidency. Nevertheless, Trump claims to have won many club championships over the years before his decision to dive into the political arena.
Historically, golf plays a significant role for many of the nation’s presidents. Dwight Eisenhower played some 800 rounds as the 34th President of the United States. Woodrow Wilson reportedly played 1200 rounds when he was president from 1913 to 1921.
The new golfer-in-chief will get a chance to air out a gift Abe presented to Trump after he won the election in November. Japan’s chief executive bestowed a Honma Beres S-05 driver to the New York billionaire. The club retails for a whopping $3,755.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump indicated he would be looking for Abe and his country to help the United States in covering the cost of providing security and safety around the world. This idea disturbed many of Trump’s critics, as they accused him of encouraging nuclear arms proliferation in the “Land of the Rising Sun.”