South Korean president dusts off the golf clubs for Trump

Seoul
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is taking up golf after years away from the game to prepare for future encounters with US President-elect Donald Trump, his office said Wednesday. Yoon, 63, has not played in nearly a decade, an official told AFP, but in anticipation of the second Trump administration will dust off his clubs. “In order for smooth conversations” President Yoon “needs to hit the ball properly,” a president’s office official said in a background briefing earlier this week. Yoon previously regularly scored in the 90s, the daily Kyeongin Ilbo reported, citing a playing partner.
Trump, who owns several courses in the United States and abroad, is a self-confessed golf addict who frequently boasts about his ability on social media and claims a single-digit handicap.
At a press conference last week Yoon said people had told him he would have “good chemistry” with Trump, noting both had first been elected to top office as political novices.
Yoon was a former prosecutor before taking office in 2022.
World leaders have tried — with mixed results — to cultivate personal bonds with Trump through golf.
Late former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe played with Trump on multiple occasions and is reported to have gifted him a set of gold-plated clubs.