Spending on the Trump transition effort, which Mr. Christie was leading, was already higher than what the transition team of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, had spent, even though polls showed her winning. And some around Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Christie was using his post to promote his own people, including his former chief of staff and his former law partner, who were running the team day to day, and one of his longtime supporters, Bob Grady, who had been recommended for several positions.

The friendship between Mr. Christie and Mr. Trump, while never deep, has always been pragmatic. And several people interviewed said they had begun to patch up any break with a conversation on the Saturday after the president-elect removed the governor as leader of his transition team. That continued with the meeting on Sunday at the golf club, not far from Mr. Christie’s home.

Jon Bramnick, the leader of the Republican minority in the New Jersey Assembly and one of the governor’s most steadfast supporters, said, “Both Trump and Christie are the type that they’re loyal to their friends, and I suspect that long term it will work out, whether it’s a position now or later.”

But the Trump roller coaster has been particularly jolting for Mr. Christie.

The two men met, according to Mr. Christie, through Mr. Trump’s sister, a federal judge, shortly after Mr. Christie became United States attorney for New Jersey in 2002. Mr. Christie liked to be around celebrity; Mr. Trump, who owned several casinos in Atlantic City, liked to know people in charge.

As the testimony in the lane-closing trial showed, Mr. Christie began planning a run for president in 2016 shortly after taking office in 2010. Mr. Trump’s run started out looking like more of a flirtation with the office. But in a crowded field of Republicans, he soon occupied the position Mr. Christie expected to take, as the tell-it-like-it-is candidate not afraid to challenge the way things had always been done.

Mr. Christie had struggled to bounce back from the scandal since January 2014, when a legislative subpoena revealed that his deputy chief of staff had sent an email calling for “some traffic problems” in the town that was gridlocked by the closings, to punish a mayor who had declined to endorse the governor.

After the governor failed in his attempt to make a good showing in the New Hampshire primary contest in February, he endorsed Mr. Trump. He became the first major establishment Republican to do so. He also alienated many friends and financial backers and saw his poll numbers drop to a new low.