“If it was Barack Obama, I would have played. If it was Hillary Clinton, I would have played.”

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Based on various social media posts and stories, Rory McIlroy's acceptance of a last-minute invitation to play golf with president Donald Trump has not been universally well received. Even though McIlroy merely answered a late Saturday call for a Sunday game, he has been questioned for accepting. I do not understand the outcry.

Pro golfers have not had a great recent history on this front--think Azinger and Pavin insisting they were not offended by going to the Clinton White House. With this topic in mind--one that won't go away as President Trump's regular golfing is highlighted--Karen Crouse of the New York Times anonymously polled pros about playing a round with the president. Fifty of 56 polled said they would accept an invite from President Trump.

Ernie Els, who teed up with Trump recently, gave the answer you'd hope to hear:

“If it was Barack Obama, I would have played. If it was Hillary Clinton, I would have played.”

And because he's on such a diplomacy roll, Pat Perez took an opposite approach.

Perez said he would play with Trump “in a heartbeat,” but would have turned down an invitation from Mrs. Clinton if she had won. (It should be noted that she is not known to golf.)

Ultimately all of this golf talk--which has become prime late night fodder--is pretty minor unless golf triggers global conflict of some kind. That seems unlikely.

However, I'd argue today's banter between President Trump and GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, while understandable to golfers given the story, reinforces way too many stereotypes:

 

 

The "Caddyshack" President

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Elizabeth Williamson takes President Trump to task for turning the Mar-a-Lago ballroom into the Situation Room so that a response to North Korea's missile test could be sorted out.

As members shared photos of the man charged with carrying the nuclear codes on social media, the President openly discussed a proper response with Japan's prime minister. For this, Williamson invokes the Al Czervik metaphor.

Though President Trump never asked a bartender what time he was due back in Boy's Town or hit on Judge Smails' wife...

One would think leadership of the free world would have scratched Mr. Trump’s itch for publicity. But this is the man who called reporters using a fake name to generate stories about himself; who introduced a member of one of his clubs to a Golf Digest reporter as “the richest guy in Germany,” instead of by name; who looks pained when having to share the podium with anyone, from Sarah Palin to the prime minister of Canada. This is rule by Al Czervik, Rodney Dangerfield’s character in “Caddyshack”: a reckless, clownish boor surrounded by sycophants, determined to blow up all convention. But this is real life, and every time Mr. Trump strikes a pose, the rest of the world holds its breath.

Easy there, Czervik is no boor! Ok, maybe a tad...

 

 

Bernhard Langer: A Friend Told Me A Story, I Told My Friend Who Told His Friend, The President Of The United States!

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The following is a statement issued by the PGA TOUR on behalf of Champions Tour member Bernhard Langer, currently to blame for an impending voter fraud investigation demanded by President Donald Trump.

"Unfortunately, the report in the New York Times and other news outlets was a mischaracterization by the media. The voting situation reported was not conveyed from me to President Trump, but rather was told to me by a friend. I then relayed the story in conversation with another friend, who shared it with a person with ties to the White House. From there, this was misconstrued. I am not a citizen of the United States, and cannot vote. It’s a privilege to live in the United States, and I am blessed to call America my home. I will have no further comment at this time."

So to recap, Bernhard Langer heard a story about shady goings on at the polls, who told his friend, who told Donald Trump.

Downing Street Eyeing Trump Golf Round In Front Of The Queen

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The Telegraph's Christopher Hope and Ben Riley-Smith report on summer plans being made by Downing Street and the White House that will include a Balmoral visit. The story says there is a nine-hole course on the castle property, though I couldn't find it in aerials.

It sounds like it'll be quite the first visit:

Discussions are underway about the president playing a round of golf on the private nine-hole course at Balmoral while the Queen looks on.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are also set to be involved as the royal family rolls out the red carpet for the US President and his First Lady.

Mr Trump’s team want to create a photograph opportunity to rival the famous images of President Ronald Reagan horse riding with the Queen at Windsor Castle when he visited in the 1982.

As if we weren't already excited enough about summer!

David Owen On Lessons Learned Playing Golf With Trump

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Longtime New Yorker staff writer and former Golf Digest contributor David Owen writes about his time playing golf with Donald Trump long before the developer became president-elect.

Given that only one Trump course made the recent Golf Digest top 200 courses (no Bedminster or Doral!), this might explain why panelists do not rate his courses highly:

Golf publications periodically rate golf courses—the hundred best in the world, the hundred best in the country, the dozen best in each state—and Trump’s relationship with such ratings is complex. He complained to me that golf publications never rank his courses high enough, because the people who do the rating hold a grudge against him, but he also said that he never allows raters to play his courses, because they would just get in the way of the members. “I think we’d have a revolt with our membership,” he explained. “Because, unlike other clubs, every one of my membership lists is perfect. And when you start adding hundreds of raters who want to play golf . . .” Nevertheless, when someone from a golf publication does write something positive, after somehow having managed to slip past the perimeter, Trump quotes it endlessly (and, inevitably, magnifies it).

Owen also shares some of the feedback he got from an "upset" Trump after his story appeared.

He called the editor of Golf Digest to complain, and then he called me, on my cell phone. I was in the city on a reporting assignment unrelated to golf, and had the surreal experience of being chewed out by a future President of the United States while standing among the gravestones in the burial ground next to Trinity Church. He wasn’t upset that one of the article’s illustrations had been of a golf ball wearing a turf toupee that looked a lot like his deeply mysterious hair, or that I’d mentioned his asking two little girls at Mar-a-Lago if they wanted to be supermodels when they grew up, or that I’d described nearly tipping him five dollars after momentarily mistaking him for his club’s parking-lot attendant, or that I’d written that he’d introduced one of his club’s members to me not by name but as “the richest guy in Germany.” He was upset that I hadn’t written that he’d shot 71—a very good golf score, one stroke under par.

I hadn’t written that because he hadn’t shot 71. We hadn’t been playing for score, and we had given each other putts and taken other friendly liberties—as golfers inevitably do when they’re just fooling around. I said something to that effect in the politest way I could think of, but he wasn’t mollified. He was also angry that I’d described his wedge game as “poor.” (On several occasions, he’d had trouble with shots inside a hundred yards, both during our round and on the practice range beforehand.) I reminded him that I had mainly written very flattering things about his golf game, and that I’d mentioned his victories in three club championships and had quoted praise from his caddie and his pro (“You have a very nice bicycle, Donald, even if it’s not as nice as your friend’s”). But none of that made any difference. He wanted the number, and the fact that I hadn’t published the number proved that I was just like all the other biased reporters, who, because we’re all part of the anti-Trump media conspiracy, never give him as much credit as he deserves for being awesome. Such is his now familiar habit of acting like a sore loser even when he’s won.