USGA On Trump: "We're Evaluating"

I'm just getting around to today's Trump reading and all signs point to the golf v. Donald matter not really subsiding.

Randall Mell on the USGA Thursday press conference at Lancaster CC during the U.S. Women's Open where Executive Director Mike Davis was asked about the controversial host of the 2017 U.S. Women's Open.

“I can’t speak for the other golf organizations, but I can for the USGA say that we have not wanted to get involved in politics, presidential politics, but at the same time we are about diversity, about inclusion, about growing the game,” USGA executive director Mike Davis said Thursday at the U.S. Women’s Open. “We are evaluating things, and at this point that’s all we can say.”

With Trump Bedminster just down the street from Golf House, there's no telling how much needs to be sorted out here. Oh, the joys of neighborship!

Bradley Klein considers the Trump golf brand and how the unraveling of golf v. Trump impacts the cache built up of late.

That brand is now two-fold: in the form of marketing and of a recognizable aesthetic. By putting his name on each of his 17 properties, he has unavoidably, and in fact quite systematically, created a unique mode of consumer identification with his product. No one else has done that in golf course development. Not in such personal terms.

And James Corrigan of The Telegraph warns that golf might want to be careful in cutting ties to Trump and opening up other worm cans.

But what should the R&A do about keeping Trump Turnberry on the Open roster?

My advice would be nothing. After all, Royal Troon may be having a review into their membership policy but next year’s Open venue still does not allow women to be members. Neither does Muirfield.

Meanwhile, many of the sponsors which keep the sport awash in greenbacks could hardly be said to be squeaky clean. Golf should stay away from the high ground for a while yet. Otherwise that tremendously infectious disease called hypocrisy could pour across its borders.