Donald Trump, 79, claims to have won yet another golf tournament this weekend but clips of his round that emerged on social media have raised serious questions about his supposed talent on the course.
The White House claimed he had won at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, shooting a 69 and a 67 despite having a technique that pros told the Daily Beast is clearly “lacking.”
The White House posted a picture of a scorecard with the caption “Winning on and off the course,” but the use of official accounts to celebrate his supposed 11-shot victory this weekend enraged commentators. Golf author Rick Reilly claimed that a clip showing Trump’s caddie dropping a ball on the green was final proof that Trump has been cheating all these years.
Video footage shows Trump’s caddie throwing a ball down onto the green. X
“So you know, it’s NEVER legal for your caddie to drop a ball. YOU can drop one, but never on a green. And since this was a full-score event, it’s not legal for Trump to drag the ball into the hole,” adding “No, no, never. Our president is a f—ing golf cheat.”
The president then dragged the ball into the hole. X
Trump claimed to have won 18 club championships as of 2019 when Reilly, a former Sports Illustrated columnist, tallied Trump’s boasts in his book Commander in Cheat. The president has celebrated several more “victories” since then, taking him past the 20-trophy mark. All of these wins are thought to have been played out at his own courses.
Golf Digest reported in 2017 that his handicap was an impressive 2.8.
But cheating allegations muddy the waters around his claims of an illustrious sporting history, and experts told The Daily Beast that—without assistance—his game is not at that level. “The swing itself is not likely a technique that would accomplish 18 club championships or a 2.8 handicap,” Robert Macgregor, a U.S.-based professional golf coach at TeachMe.To, told the Daily Beast after analyzing footage from Trump’s visit to his Turnberry Golf Course in Scotland last month.
The President chips one out the bunker on a round in Scotland REUTERS/Phil Noble
All of the golf pros who spoke to the Daily Beast were impressed with Trump’s game for a man of his age and agreed that he was an above-average player. That, however, is not the same as being a serial tournament champion.
One PGA professional was confident that there are parts of Trump’s game that would prevent him from winning multiple golf tournaments.
“He can clearly step up to a ball and strike it, but when it comes to the short game, he looks like he’s going to be found out sooner or later,” coach Craig Normansell told the Daily Beast. “It certainly doesn’t look like the level of someone who’s won 18 club championships.”
Analysis by Forbes on July 30 claimed Trump had spent 45 of his first 191 days back in office playing golf, while at the time of press, DidTrumpGolfToday.com claimed that he has played on 24.9 percent of his days in office.
YouTube coach Danny Maude, who has 1.5 million followers, said that given the amount he plays, he should be a good golfer but pointed out some weaknesses. “There are clearly faults in his golf swing,” he said. “A lot of those faults come from probably some stiffness—you know, as we get a bit older, we don’t move like we normally do.”
“He might be able to stand there and beat a driver like most people can, but when it comes to the artistry side of playing… that, for me, looks like he’s lacking a little bit.” REUTERS/Phil Noble
More footage from Scotland—where an open course allowed unprecedented amounts of social media video to be captured—showed Trump driving in a golf buggy with two men in orange jackets walking nearby, before one appears to drop a ball on the fairway in the president’s path. It was a similar maneuver—apparently well-rehearsed—to the alleged cheating incident at Bedminster this weekend.
“Someone was saying that this looks like cheating, I don’t know what’s going on here. Obviously, you’re not allowed to chuck a ball down on the fairway in normal medal rounds but maybe what we’re seeing here is him just having a bit of fun,” Maude told ITV.
John Means, who runs John Means Golf Camps and is the former head coach at the University of Idaho, told the Daily Beast that even if it was true that Trump had a handicap of 2.8, it may not mean that much. “The handicap system in the U.S. is seriously flawed,” he said, explaining that you could have a low handicap and still regularly shoot well over-par. “And although Trump does not have a fundamentally sound golf swing, it certainly is possible to have a 2.8 handicap and also average over 80 per round.”
Normansell, who has been a professional golfer based in the U.K. for 14 years, broke down Trump’s technique and explained why it would not have won him more than a dozen golf tournaments.
“If it’s a gross club championship—ie, no handicap, no net, nothing—I’d be very surprised,” Normansell said. “He can clearly strike a golf ball, he’s clearly got a consistent setup, but relative to the management and the short game side, 18 seems a little bit out there in my opinion… I’d be surprised if he had, it’s certainly more than I’ve achieved.”
Trump strikes a pose between shots at Turnberry REUTERS/Phil Noble
On a bunker shot, Normansell added that Trump’s technique looked very “out of the ordinary.”
“He went to play what we call a bump and run shot just over the side of a fringe of a bunker for a flag that was 20 yards away from him—he looked yippy, it didn’t look like it had much technique behind it, it looked like quite a fearful shot.
“He might be able to stand there and beat a driver like most people can, but when it comes to the artistry side of playing short game shots where you’ve got to have feel and good perception of where to land the ball, that, for me, looks like he’s lacking a little bit.”
He continued: “Trump looks like he can hit a ball, but when it comes to the short game side—if you put in the wrong place at the wrong time— it could be quite amusing watching him play some shots.”
Asked what he thought Trump’s handicap would be, Normansell took a stab, saying he guessed it would be between 12 and 18, a far cry from the alleged 2.8 he was reported to have by Golf Digest in 2017.
Asked if there was any scenario where having your caddie throw the ball onto the green or the fairway would not be regarded as cheating, he laughed, and said: “No, absolutely not. No!”
