The American president’s quite “free” relationship with the truth is well known, and a look at his Twitter account should tell you a lot about it. Donald Trump is also a keen golfer, he has his own golf courses and only recently antagonized Rory McIllroy, who said he no longer wanted to play golf with Trump. And yet Trump behaves the same way when he plays golf as he does elsewhere: he is callous, eager to win and rules don’t apply to him. Some say that you only understand Trump when you go golfing with him.
Golf enthusiast and journalist Rick Reilly has experienced Donald Trump on the golf course for many years and describes in his book the tricks and cool-headedness with which Trump knows how to gain an advantage in golf in every conceivable way. If there is one thing that must never happen in Trump’s world, it is defeat – even if it is in a game with Tiger Woods.
In his anecdote-filled book“The Man Who Can’t Lose” (to be published in Germany on September 2), well-known American sports journalist Rick Reilly once again proves that the US president is not always so particular about the truth and summarizes: “To say Donald Trump is cheating is like saying Michael Phelps is swimming. Michael Phelps swims,” says Reilly.
Here are some of Donald Trump’s golf flights:
Donald Trump claims to have won 18 club championships
“Golf match? I’ve won 18 club championships, the last one just this weekend. @mcuban has a swing like a little girl, zero power, zero talent. Mark is a loser
– Donald J. Trump on Twitter, March 19, 2013
“18 Club Championships? That’s like a National Football League (NFL) quarterback telling you he’s won the Super Bowl 18 times. It’s grotesque. This lie is bigger than the Cologne Carnival and the Oktoberfest put together. And by the way: Trump already told me how he manages this that day in Westchester. ‘Whenever I open a new golf course,’ he told me, ‘I play the official opening round, and then I just declare that the first club championship. It’s as simple as that! I’m the first club champion! … But that’s between us, of course.'” (S. 8)
Donald Trum claims to have a handicap of 2.8.
“According to the caddy and several professionals, who after all earn their living from golf, his handicap is somewhere between 7 and 10. All well and good, there’s just one problem: Trump himself insists he has a handicap of 2.8. In the world of golf handicaps, that’s a world of difference. If Trump has a 2.8 handicap, then Queen Elizabeth is a pole vaulter. No way. Someone with a 9 handicap would need five years of hard training to get to 2.8 – and Donald Trump doesn’t train.” (p. 44ff.)
Donald Trump’s invisible ball
“I’ve often played with him, says a frequent guest at Trump’s foursomes. Once I was on the fairway, and he was next to the green, but a little behind a hill. I guess he didn’t think anyone was watching, but I saw it. I saw him make a chip move to the side of the hill, but no ball came flying. Then he went up the hill, reached his hand into the hole and pulled a ball out. He must have had it in his hand the whole time. He raised his head and shouted ‘The chip was right! Seriously now, who does that?”
Picking up and bagging – Trump can do that!
“In this cunning little trick, you play the approach shot on the green and then simply pick up the rest quickly, no matter how far the ball is from the hole, before your opponent can say anything or intervene with an indignant “Wait a minute!”. Trump is a master at this. Sometimes he even does this while the ball is still rolling. The MSNBC cameras caught one instance where his ball had gone a meter and a half beyond the hole and was even faster. Before anyone could protest, he had grabbed the ball and put it in his pocket.”
“Speaking of shenanigans, Trump didn’t just lie incessantly about himself that day. He also lied incessantly about ME. He went to some other club member and said, ‘This is Rick. He’s the boss of Sports Illustrated.’ (…) Finally, when we were alone, I asked Trump, ‘Donald, why do you keep spreading lies about me?’ ‘Sounds better,’ he said.”
“A friend of mine had dinner with Trump and his wife Melania once in 2015. At the time, this presidential candidacy thing was just emerging. The conversation between the men and women at the table had each taken their own paths. My friend’s wife said, ‘You have a nice accent, Melania. Where are you from?’ ‘Slovenia,’ she replied. In mid-sentence, Trump turned to her and interjected: ‘Say Austria. Sounds better.”
