MELVILLE, New York — In the recent debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the discussion devolved into comments about each other’s golf skills. Trump said of Biden that “He can’t hit a ball 50 yards.” Biden retorted, “I’m happy to play golf if you carry your own bag. Think you can do it?”
And more recently, during President Biden’s press conference at the end of the NATO conference, he called out the former president by asking, “Where has Trump been, riding around on his golf cart, filling out his score card before he hits the ball?”
Israel is home to two golf courses in Caesarea–a 6500-meter 18-hole course and a 9-hole par 3 course. The 18-hole course was built after James Armand de Rothschild visited the ancient ruins at Caesarea and noted that the surrounding sand dunes were reminiscent of golf courses in his native Scotland. Being an accomplished golfer himself, he decided to build a course on that land.
The course opened in 1961 at an event that featured famed golfer Sam Snead. But this was not the first golf course to exist in this region, as the British Mandate authorities had built a golf course on the Dead Sea near Kibbutz Kalya in the 1930’s. British soldiers and civil servants established three competing golf organizations at the time which offered tournaments and frequently held competitions with each other. One was named the Jerusalem Golf Club and the second was the Palestine Police Golf Society. What was the name of the third group?
Mark D. Zimmerman is the author of a series of Jewish trivia books, under the title RASHI, RAMBAM and RAMALAMADINGDONG: A Quizbook of Jewish Trivia Facts & Fun.