In November US President Donald trump is to embark on a tour of Asia, taking in visits to Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and China. During his visit to Japan, he has already pencilled in the opportunity for a round of Golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the world number three, Hideki Matsuyama.
The two leaders are renowned for their mutual love of golf and Abe presented Trump with a top of the range driver made by Japanese firm Honma when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential election.
Trump's love of golf
It is well documented that the US Commander-in-Chief loves a round of golf, or two.
He owns several courses and to date has played golf every four days of his presidency. His most recent outing was while five former Presidents met to raise money for hurricane victims. During the weekend of fund-raising, the President was playing one of his courses in Virginia on what was reportedly his 75th appearance on a golf course since entering the White House in January. All this from a man who slated former president Barack Obama for taking too much time off and proclaimed during his election run-up at a rally in Virginia " I'm going to be working for you, I'm not going to have time to play golf."
It would appear that his frequent appearances are working in his favour, on the golf course at least.
As a largely self-taught golfer, the President claims to play off a handicap of around 4 which puts him in the bracket of a very good amateur.
Trump's approval ratings
In an approval rating released by Fox News today, the President has reached a personal low of 38 points. This is the lowest yet for President Trump and represents a drop of 4 percentage points since September and a huge 10 points since his post-inauguration results in February.
In a similar vein, his disapproval ratings have also reached a new high of 57 points. Admittedly, the past few months would not have been easy for any president with storms hitting the mainland, hurricanes laying waste to island groups and forest fires raging through parts of the US, not to mention the ongoing threat of nuclear attack from North Korea.
However, Trump's bullish and aggressive stance on many of these issues and his refusal to seek counsel from those closest to him seem to be working against him.
Golf and politics
Someone once said that many great deals are sealed on the golf course, but one would imagine they weren't referring to world politics. Trump is a businessman, first and foremost. Author of "The Art of the Deal", he has made a name for himself as a businessman and rightly so. However, as his ratings drop with his golf handicap, surely the time has come to realise that there is a time and place for everything and maybe, just maybe, he should for once be too busy running the country to play golf.
