‘Can’t hit a ball 50 yards’: Debate spiralled into handicap furore

For a moment, Friday’s debate looked less like a contest to see who will lead the free world and more like a remake of the 1980s classic golf movie, Caddyshack - with a bit of Grumpy Old Men thrown in, writes James Morrow.

For a moment, Friday’s debate looked less like a contest to see who will lead the free world and more like a remake of the 1980s classic golf movie, Caddyshack.

With, perhaps, a bit of Grumpy Old Men thrown in for good measure.

After nearly 90 minutes of sparring, the conversation between Joe Biden and Donald Trump turned to, of all things, golf handicaps.

Trump, who at times seems like a real life incarnation of Caddyshack’s rowdy, Rolls Royce driving property developer Al Czervik (played beautifully by the late Rodney Dangerfield), teed things off.

So to speak.

For the first time, a president has boasted about how much time he had to get his golf handicap down.

After boasting that he’d passed two cognitive fitness tests, Trump steered the conversation to his golf prowess, saying he had “won two club championships – not even senior – two regular club championships.”

“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,” Trump continued.

Bill Murray in a scene from the 1980 film Caddyshack.

“He doesn’t do it. He can’t hit a ball 50 yards. He challenged me to a golf match – he can’t hit a ball 50 yards.”

Not to be outdone, Biden (here playing a more addled version of Caddyshack’s Judge Smails) fired back: “I got my handicap, which when I was vice president, down to a six.”

This may be the first time in history a politician has bragged about having so much free time in office he was able to get his handicap into the single digits.

“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?” he continued.

Trump fired back: “That’s the biggest lie that he’s a six handicap of all.”

Not for the first time in the evening Biden then corrected himself, saying: “I was a eight handicap. Yeah. Eight.”

Caddyshack fans will recall the film ends with a deranged greenkeeper blowing up the entire course, which given the state of the world means we can all only hope the political analogies to Caddyshack go no further.

Originally published as ‘Can’t hit a ball 50 yards’: Debate spiralled into handicap furore