Of all Sir Keir Starmer’s tactics to ingratiate himself with Donald Trump, maybe heading to the driving range will become the prime minister’s priority.

That’s the advice of John Bolton – national security adviser during Mr Trump’s first term.

“I don’t know if Keir Starmer plays golf,” he told Sky News, “but I’d advise him to take it up if he doesn’t.”

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Maybe it’s too late to reach Alexander Stubb’s levels of proficiency.

The Finnish president, who has played golf for his country, secured coveted face time across the weekend by joining the US president in a tournament at Mar-a-Lago.

Bonding with Mr Trump at his golf course has turned Florida into the swing state for diplomacy.

Combining Mr Trump’s two loves – gold and golf – was Shinzo Abe’s strategy to build rapport and gain influence.

A $3,000 (£2,700) golden club was presented to him by the then Japanese prime minister to celebrate his first election win in 2016.

During his first White House term, the pair teed off together several times in both the US and Japan, where Mr Trump was dazzled by being joined on the round by professional golfer Hideki Matsuyama.

And the late Abe’s prime ministerial office said at the time it had been a round of golf “with a marvellous friend, full of spirited conversation”.

It was straight from his family’s playbook.

Just as he followed Nobusuke Kishi as Japanese premier, his grandfather also golfed with President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 during a visit to Washington.

It symbolised the renewal of ties between the former Second World War foes.

The Abe playbook influenced South Korea’s tactics to prepare for Mr Trump’s return to power.

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President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office said soon after Mr Trump’s November election win that he got his golf clubs out after eight years to get some essential practice.

Within weeks, the pair did share something else in common – both have been impeached.

But trying to impose martial law saw Mr Yoon suspended from his presidential duties while Mr Trump avoided that shame during his first term battles.

Once it was Mr Trump swinging for his White House predecessor, Barack Obama – complaining about how he had time for golf while in power.

But it was rare for Mr Obama to play with a fellow national leader, which he did during a visit to London in 2016, taking on then prime minister David Cameron at The Grove resort near Watford.

But golf is not the only sport used as a tool for diplomacy.

Hockey hopes

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin found time to talk about sport during their recent call on the fate of Ukraine.

According to the Kremlin, the leaders of the US and Russia discussed pitting their hockey stars against each other.

Staging battles on ice might not seem a priority or an obvious move to thaw tensions between the nations, especially with a war to end.

But fostering a climate of cooperation would be progress – bringing rivals together when so many sporting events have banned Russia’s teams entirely.

And it is another chance for Mr Trump and Mr Putin to harness the symbolism and soft power of sport as a tool of diplomacy.

Mr Putin tried to reshape Russia’s image by staging the 2014 Winter Olympics and the men’s 2018 World Cup before becoming global outcasts with the full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022.

Sport could ease Russia’s re-entry into the global community, especially if Mr Trump is keen for Russia to be part of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics on his turf.

Ping Pong diplomacy

In the early 1970s, Ping Pong diplomacy was credited with breaking the ice between China and the US after an exchange of table tennis players between the nations.

It paved the way for President Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing.

The template for sports exchanges has been replicated on the Korean Peninsula.

North-South table tennis teams have been tried while their countries are technically still at war.

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Athletes from the neighbours have even marched behind a unification flag at major events, as recently as 2018 at the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics staged by the South in Pyeonchang.

Those Games also saw a combined women’s ice hockey team.

But the break in tensions between Pyongyang and Seoul proved largely symbolically fleeting as the North persists with a nuclear programme.

Cricket diplomacy

India and Pakistan have often tried to use their shared affection for cricket to build bridges.

There was the time in 2011 when the prime ministers of the nuclear-armed adversaries stood side by side and applauded each other’s national anthems at a World Cup match.

But after a number of test match and limited-overs series in the noughties, the countries haven’t played a test since 2008 and currently only play one-day internationals against each other if a competition draw forces them together.

Under India’s current nationalist government led by Narendra Modi, they refused to play in Pakistan while its neighbour hosted the recent men’s Champions Trophy.

India instead played its matches in the UAE.

It is still hoped the fervour for cricket can show what bonds the nations rather than persisting with a bitter territorial dispute.

Rugby reconciliation

Sometimes it can all come together through sport with the perfect result at the perfect time. Achieving in one match the type of national unity that’s been sought for decades.

South Africa’s post-apartheid transformation was symbolised when they won the 1995 Rugby World Cup on home soil.

A Johannesburg crowd chanted Nelson Mandela’s name as the president wore the Springbok emblem so previously hated by black South Africans.

This racial reconciliation was portrayed in the film Invictus.

Ivory Coast

In 2005, when Ivory Coast qualified for the World Cup for the first time, Didier Drogba made an impromptu televised speech pleading for an end to the civil war.

“We proved today that all Ivorians can coexist and play together with a shared aim,” he implored on the microphone in the dressing room.

It is credited with eventually helping to end the violence, resonating with a divided nation swept up by footballing emotions.

And that desire to use football to foster a culture of unity and reconciliation was reinforced in 2007 when a national team match was moved to be played in a rebel stronghold.

The Olympic Truce

There is the ideal that hostilities are halted during the Olympics and Paralympics and athletes are granted safe passage.

The Olympic Truce – introduced by a UN resolution – is well-intentioned but with no consequences for breaking it.

Russia has violated it by invading Georgia (2008), Crimea (2014), and Ukraine fully (2022) – while never accepting that.

Nobel peace

Sepp Blatter was thought to covet the Nobel Peace Prize while FIFA president and his successor, Gianni Infantino, has the same desire to claim football as the world’s only unifying force.

There was an attempt to add Qatar’s neighbours to the 2022 World Cup hosting during a period of diplomatic tensions.

Those plans collapsed, but Mr Infantino has often floated the possibility of bringing the Middle East together through the tournament watched by billions.

“Even though there are complicated or difficult diplomatic relations, when it comes to football people talk to each other,” he once said.

But FIFA will have to navigate the 2026 World Cup while the US, the main host, has president Trump waging a trade war on junior tournament partners Canada and Mexico.