I don’t know if there’s a hashtag for Trump’s cheating overall, or if there are specific ones. I’m admittedly not that savvy in social media stuff. There SHOULD be one however for #TrumpCheatsAtGolf. He’s cheated at everything his entire life. Why should golf be any different? It’s a sport where integrity, personal honor is necessary and over centuries that quality has prevailed. For those like Trump, it’s rife with opportunities to CHEAT. Few do so but Trump of course does. Now he’s being called out (again) by a well knowns sportswriter and one with a particular affinity for golf.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Trump cheats at golf. He’s known for it but few have called him out on it. One person who has is sportswriter Rick Reilly who even wrote a book on the subject, and now Reilly’s thrown down a challenge – a match against Trump in which he’ll pay $$100 if Trump wins – on the condition it’s played NOT at a Trump golf course, and more importantly that it will have United States Golf Association officials on hand to monitor. Basically, with the USGA having on-course reps to make sure there’s NO CHEATING!

Newsweek has a write up that’s worth your time to look at. Between them and other outlets reporting on this challenge Trump is bound to know about it by now! Oh how I hope Trump gets asked about this over and over. With his trial in Manhattan coming up he’d seem to have a perfect excuse to dodge it as he’ll also have to squeeze in campaign events. Still, you can bet he’ll find time to get in rounds of golf. And the trial doesn’t start for another couple of weeks. There will be time after as well, since Trump won’t be going to jail anytime soon. He’ll remain free on appeal. Now, unless you’re a golfer you might be asking who the hell is Rick Reilly, and what’s the deal with the USGA? (Even if you’re not a golfer you know Trump makes a BFD about his golfing ability and handicap)

Let’s start with award winning journalist Reilly, now 65 years old. You can read about him here. He’s known for an entertainingly humorous style of writing, with a biting wit and willing to call out top athletes. He took on Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds during the baseball steroid scandal. And though he’d defended Lance Armstrong once it was proven Armstrong was a cheat Reilly cut him to bits too. He’s not been afraid to speak truths people sometimes don’t want to hear. That brings us to golf, and yes Reilly is really into golf. That includes the traditions of the game and one of the main ones is players respecting the rules and being honest. NOT cheating. Among his books there’s one about famous people he’s caddied for which is how he came to learn Trump cheated at golf. Later, he’d write Commander In Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump. (Trump was not at all pleased) Reilly’s also written columns about Trump’s cheating. It bugs the hell out of him, as does the willingness of famous and even admired golfers to call Trump out instead of shrugging off his antics.

Trump? Well, he cheats at everything. Starting back in school. In relationships including marriages as we know. In business too, again as we already know. And in politics of course. Hell, he tried and is still trying to cheat the entire country rather than admit he lost in 2020!  And he cheats at golf. I miss being able to play (too long a story) but one of the things that I’d always loved was that almost everyone simply didn’t cheat. Pros have called penalties on themselves when in contention to win tournaments, including major championships! That’s how seriously MOST golfer take the integrity of the game. They obey the rules and if they inadvertently break one they inform their playing partner(s) and take the penalty. Can anyone imagine Trump doing such a thing?

Are you done laughing? Ok, let’s get back to where we now stand. You probably saw the news of Trump bragging about bagging not one but TWO “championships” (and trophies) in the same day recently. At an event held at one of his own courses. (Naturally) Reaction to his post on social media was met with a lot of skepticism, as well as outright derision. Even President Biden (who up through the early years of being VP was widely known to be one of the top few golfers in DC political circles) got in on the act with a dry dig. He took another one at Trump during the Thurs. night fundraiser, saying he’d give Trump 3 strokes (allow him to subtract 3 shots from his actual score) IF Trump carried his own bag. That means NOT riding in a cart, but walking the course and instead of having a caddy carrying his own bag like most of us do if we can’t afford a cart in addition to green fees.  Trump of course wouldn’t be able to complete even nine holes (much less 18) even on the flat as a pancake Hain’s Point course. (it’s on an island in the Potomac River just south of the 14th Street Bridge)

I’m actually surprised Trump hasn’t responded to either of Biden’s jabs. Personally, even though Biden doesn’t have game anymore he’d not embarrass himself and could carry his own bag, or tow a walking cart. I think it would be great to see him and Trump play nine holes together at Hain’s Point! But walking? Trump would never make it. I doubt he could even if caddies were allowed. Reilly is almost as old as me, but in much better shape. He could walk even a championship level course, especially if he had a caddy. But even if riding in carts was allowed Trump will never go for it because of having a USGA official (one for each golfer/cart, and while they’re at it a couple on either side of the fairways where shots are expected to land to find the ball before the golfers get to them!) monitors goings on. Trump wouldn’t be allowed to cheat!

It would be a real life but not at all funny version of a scene from the movie Welcome to Mooseport where the fictional (only in this case hugely popular) former President is reluctantly informed by his aid he can’t win his match after the ex wife shows up to call the Secret Service guys out of the trees and into open view – telling him his handicap has over the years been “augmented.” Trump famously does his own augmenting, kicking or slyly tossing his ball OUT of trouble and throwing other’s into bunkers or into other bad spots.  With the USGA there refereeing and keeping score like in a major competition Trump would be f**ked and he knows it. But Reilly has gone for broke, matching Trump’s truth social post about his recent “accomplishment” with this:

That tweet by Reilly has it all. It points out the statement from one of Trump’s people that proves Trump IS aware Reilly made fun of the TS post, but also lays down the challenge. But even better it hawks Reilly’s book devoted to Trump’s cheating at golf! There’s that picture of it in all it’s glory. You just know Trump has to be furious at being so directly called out. I know it’s Easter weekend and all, but I hope come Monday this story still has legs. That Trump gets asked about it every time a journalist is close enough (with a camera operating) to hit him with a Are you going to accept Rick Reilly’s challenge? You are after all trying to come up with a $175 million bond question. Trump would go bat-sh*t insane. IF journalists have the guts to put him on the spot.

My fear is that the big bosses, the executives will issue orders not to “provoke” Trump on this. They are still hoping for a close “horse race” type of election coverage. We’ll see. But I think it’s funny as hell. I also don’t see Reilly letting up. He’ll keep pushing it, maybe even with tweets from some golf course he happens to be playing at. There are certainly plenty in Florida. And North Carolina is a swing state so Reilly could tweak Trump by suggesting playing their match here, say at Pinehurst (I’d love to see Trump make a fool of himself on the famous Pinehurst #2) because that’s only an hour down the road from me.

Keep an eye out. This might seem small and petty (it is) but maybe, just maybe could turn into something memorable. I do hope the hastags/memes about Trump cheating at golf, Trump being chicken etc. proliferate. Go viral. RUIN one of the few refuges he has left because it will eat him up inside to the point where even on his own courses he will have Riley’s challenge and the fact millions of people are mocking him on his mind!

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5 COMMENTS

  1. You know, there’s all these folks who have played dingleberry, on his golf links of course, who are quite aware he cheats and in fact cheated right in front of them. Do they raise all holy hell about it (because of the “integrity” of the game of golf)? Oh f*ck no. They knew he was a cheater but they now have their own “trump cheats at golf” story to tell. When I read crap like that and then read about the supposed “integrity” of the game and how serious golfers take it all I can say is “I smell bull-shit”. Watching someone take the “integrity” of a game and wipe his ass with it takes that “we take cheating very seriously” argument and tosses it in the toilet where it belongs. If you play golf with a known cheater just so you have your own special little story to tell, you have no more idea of what “integrity” means than trump–and he doesn’t even know that word exists.

    As for hashtags and memes about trump’s habitual cheating having any effect on his magats all I have to say is this: golf tends to be a sport of people with disposable income and golf played at country clubs and such is costly. Even if you’re only playing at your local Par 3 there is the outlay for clubs, constant purchases of balls/tees/etc., greens fees…oh, and then there is the ridiculous clothing. Seriously tho’, the magats, the real die-hard ones, do not have this kind of money to waste. Point is they are not going to give a happy rat’s ass about these memes. They don’t care that he is a rapist, commits business fraud, is a tax cheat, tried to overthrow our legally elected president, etc. Does ANYONE really think they will care about the fact he cheats at golf? Really? If you do think they’ll give a hoot please come visit me. I have some marvelous beach-front property I want to sell to you. Great location in fact: Arizona. Got a bridge too if you don’t like the beach.

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    • I’ve lost a lot of respect for once admired pro golfers for exactly the thing you mentioned – putting up with Trump cheating just to have a story to tell. Worse are those who’ve endorsed him and Jack Nicklaus who was once the embodiment of golf and integrity slobbering all over him? Sorry Jack but go f**k yourself. If I win the lottery and can afford to learn to play again with my disability it will be without my Jack Nicklaus putter. I spent what for me was a fortune when I bought if after spending a half day testing putters. Putting was the part of the game I always excelled at so I didn’t mind spending more on my putter than my entire set of irons had cost.

      How a lower middle class kid like me who got shat on by the local country club from an early age came to love golf is a long story I won’t bore you with. But I can tell you most of the folks there would have turned up their noses at someone who conducted themselves as Trump did. Such a person would have been shunned and not allowed in competitions. Most of the playing I did was on public course or “semi-private” ones, places that had memberships but would allow those willing to pay a greens fee to play. I met all kinds of people and almost all were respectful of the rules. In the rare instance someone tried to pull some stunt they got called out. Usually they were embarrassed enough or mad enough to quit the round. In semi-annual competitions at a municipal course owned by a local government I worked for (the four ball teams were all from govt. agencies in northern VA) one time a team from fire dept. in a neighboring jurisdiction was observed cheating by not only my own group but other groups as well and it was the talk of the clubhouse. They never competed in those things again. And, as I’ve said players with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line (back before purses got to where they are now) and even a major championship on the line have called costly penalties on themselves.

      Sadly, Trump’s affinity for gold has caused his stench to work its way into the game, again proving the adage everything Trump touches dies. Pro golf has taken some steps, although not enough to distance itself from him. Taking away an annual event held at one of his courses (Doral) in FL for example and while already booked major events both here and abroad have been kept his courses are no longer under consideration for future major or big events. That’s not enough of course.

      I don’t see it happening but the USGA needs to publicly pull Trump’s handicap with a clear statement the scores can’t be trusted. Same with the R & A over in the UK. And the PGA and LPGA need to come out and say no more events will be held at Trump properties including any big events (especially major championships) in the future.

      Augusta National which will be hosting The Masters soon wants nothing to do with him and that’s good but it would be better if the club would make a point of publicly saying so. The members are mostly the richest and/or most powerful business people in the country and they aren’t about to let Trump loose to roam their perfectly manicured grounds or foul their clubhouse dining room with his literal foul stench. But again, it would be nice if they’d come out and say he’s not welcome there. In that respect they’re like cowardly GOPers in DC who rip Trump off the record but won’t stand up to him publicly.

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  3. Anyone who wants to see Trump in action on the golf course…just watch Caddyshack. He’s the Rodney Dangerfield character. I volunteer to hang out with Bill Murray. Ha.

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