Golf has been a hot topic throughout Donald Trump’s second term in office, and LIV Golf star Lee Westwood has shared his experiences on the course with the President
11:47 ET, 16 Jun 2025Updated 11:47 ET, 16 Jun 2025
President Donald Trump has played golf on a quarter of his days in office in his second term(Image: Rob Carr/Getty Images)
LIV Golf star Lee Westwood has opened up on his experience on the course with Donald Trump after the mind-boggling cost of the President’s hobby came to light.
President Trump has spent a quarter of his 148 days in office on the golf course, coming at a huge cost to the American taxpayer. According to the website didtrumpgolftoday.com, which tracks his outings on the golf course, the 79-year-old has played on 37 days since returning to the White House on Jan. 20, accounting for exactly 25 percent of his second term as commander-in-chief.
Due to the security measures required to ensure the President’s safety on the golf course, a massive bill is believed to have been racked up over his five months in the Oval Office.
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It is estimated Trump’s golf days in 2025 have cost taxpayers almost $52 million, based on 2019 Government Accountability Office data from Trump’s first term in office. Each round on the course has racked up an estimated bill of $1.4 million.
Trump has made no secret of his love for golf, not has he been minded to cut down despite increasing public scrutiny over the expenditure and lost time built up from his forays on the course.
In fact, the President and his team astutely used his passion for golf to connect with the vital demographic of young male voters in the build-up to November’s election, in which he defeated Democrat nominee Kamala Harris to regain the White House.
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Former world No.1 Lee Westwood has played multiple rounds with President Trump(Image: Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)
Trump appeared in a video on two-time U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau’s hugely popular YouTube Channel, with the pair playing 18 holes together at the President’s Bedminster course in New Jersey. The video has accumulated a massive 15 million views on the platform.
The video gave viewers a glimpse of Trump’s ability on the golf course, and DeChambeau’s fellow LIV Golf member Westwood has shared his own experience of playing multiple times with Trump before he became president.
“I lived in Florida from 2012 to 2015 and played with President Trump quite a bit,” Westwood revealed to talkSPORT. “I used to get a text saying: ‘Are you doing anything this afternoon?’, and I would play in a two-ball with him. I have spent some time with him.
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“I have to say, as a man, he is a nice human being. I had my family with me and he treated them with a lot of respect. As a golfer, he gets it round the course in his own way. He is a fantastic putter. That is the biggest praise I can heap on him.”
Trump has been a supporter of LIV Golf since it launched in 2022, hosting numerous events at his portfolio of courses, including Trump National Doral, which hosted LIV Golf Miami in April.
The event was won by March Leishman after overnight leader DeChambeau faltered in the final round.
Trump courted controversy by visiting the tournament instead of attending the dignified return of the remains of four U.S. soldiers who were killed in Lithuania. The President sent Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on his behalf.
