Trump Plays Golf for First Time Since Coronavirus Lockdowns

(Bloomberg) --

President Donald Trump golfed on Saturday for the first time in over two months, engaging in his personal passion as well as attempting to show how the U.S. can return to normal after stay-at-home orders taken against the coronavirus.

Trump arrived at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, around 10:30 a.m. on Saturday and departed some three and a half hours later.

A CNN photojournalist posted photos on Twitter of Trump swinging a golf club, waving at the camera, and driving, solo, in a golf cart. He appeared to be playing in a foursome. The White House doesn’t routinely confirm Trump’s activities at his golf courses.

The president’s most recent golf outing was March 8 at the Trump International course in West Palm Beach, Florida. He teed it up with members of the World Series-winning Washington Nationals baseball team, according to images posted by the players on social media. Trump played at the same course on March 7.

Deborah Birx, the immunologist who coordinates the White House coronavirus task force, specifically mentioned golf as an activity Americans might safely enjoy this weekend during a news conference on Friday.

Birx mentioned golf in the context of efforts by states to relax social distancing, while specifically cautioning that Washington D.C. and nearby parts of Maryland and Virginia have the highest percentages of positive test rates for coronavirus in the country at the moment.

“I’m going to call your attention to the top three states -- the top three states with the largest percent,” Birx said.

“And this is so you can all make your decisions about going outside and social distancing, potentially playing golf if you’re very careful and you don’t touch the flags, and all of those issues,” she said.

She mentioned golf three times, as well as “playing tennis with marked balls” and going to the beach while remaining socially distant during the Memorial Day long weekend, the unofficial start to summer.

Safety Measures

The U.S. now has over 1.6 million confirmed cases of Covid-19, and over 96,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

States are moving to alleviate stay-at-home orders and allowing many types of business to reopen. Most U.S. golf courses are now open, including those in Maryland and Virginia but so far not those in the nation’s capital, just a short drive from the White House.

Virginia’s golf courses remained open throughout the pandemic under the terms of the state’s stay-at-home directives; Maryland’s were closed but opened for business again earlier this month.

Courses have taken a range of measures to promote safety, including removing bunker rakes, benches and water coolers, and blocking holes with foam to help golfers avoid touching flag-sticks.

The president talked about his own golf game and the professional sport on the NBC broadcast of a skins game May 17 involving four PGA pros, which raised millions of dollars for coronavirus relief efforts.

Stuck With Reruns

“I do miss it. I haven’t played, really, since this problem that we have started, I haven’t been able to play golf for a while,” Trump said. “I’ve been very busy.”

The PGA Tour is scheduled to resume June 11-14 with the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas. The first string of events will be played without fans on site.

Until then, there are still reruns.

“I’m getting a little tired of watching 10-year-old golf tournaments where you know who won,” Trump told NBC.

Trump had a history, before his election, of criticizing President Barack Obama for regular golf games. That included a Twitter post in 2014 when Trump said Obama had “a major meeting on the NYC Ebola outbreak, with people flying in from all over the country, but decided to play golf!”

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