Donald Trump really likes to golf. He used to complain that Barack Obama played too much golf, but he has apparently found it therapeutic and has played roughly twice as much as Obama did during less than 200 days in office.
Trump has been a golfer for years, and he owns a number of clubs around the world. Golf.com did a deep dive into the game’s now-complicated relationship with Trump. Beyond the politics dynamics in the piece, we learned two important things.
1. Trump cheats at golf
This shouldn’t be a surprise, and it’s unlikely people will call him out when he pretends to be better than he really is. Call it the Vladimir Putin effect.
“Trump will sometimes respond to a shot he duffed by simply playing a second ball and carrying on as if the first shot never happened. In the parlance of the game, Trump takes floating mulligans, usually more than one during a round. Because of them it is impossible to say what he has actually shot on any given day, according to 18 people who have teed it up with Trump over the last decade, including SI senior writer Michael Bamberger, who has done so nine times. In 2007, Trump called Bamberger to brag about a 68 he had shot at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. Trump’s handicap index is officially 2.8, but he has posted only three scores since ’14. Els, a South Florida resident who has known Trump for many years, estimates he is ‘an eight or a nine.’ For Trump to shoot 68 on a tough course like Bel-Air would require him to play nearly perfectly from tee to green while making a number of substantial putts. One of his playing partners that day confirmed that Trump played “good,” but that he took all the usual liberties common among everyday golfers: mulligans, gimmes, improved lies, etc. There was no mention of the 68 in a subsequent story, and Bamberger heard about it from Trump.”
It’s sort of like Connor4Real’s basketball skills in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
2. Trump reportedly called the White House “a dump”
“Chatting with some members before a recent round of golf, he explained his frequent appearances: “That White House is a real dump.” (A White House spokesperson denies this occurred.)”
This has been your daily dose of unsurprising Trump news.
