Does President Donald Trump cheat on the golf course?

Last updated: 08 November 2024

What we can learn about Donald Trump's politics from his golf.

Donald Trump having a handicap of 3 would be extremely impressive for a septuagenarian part-timer, but Commander In Cheat author Rick Reilly pours scorn on that.

“Someone with Trump’s handicap typically would shoot scores about three-over par,” he writes. “Despite making more than 150 visits to his golf courses since taking office, Trump has logged only one round in the online USGA Handicap Index — and a 96 at that.”

Reilly’s book quotes a number of players who accuse The President, his caddie, and a variety of Secret Service agents of regularly moving his golf balls from difficult lies.

At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, Reilly notes, “The caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: ‘Pele’.” Trump denies this. “I never touch the ball,” he says.

Reilly claims to have written this book because of what he refers to as Trump’s “whopper” – the often repeated claim that he won 18 club championships, 16 of which Reilly discredits, the other two he calls into question.

This leads to the retelling of a defeat in the 2007 Westchester Men’s Club Championship when Trump was knocked out in the first round by a 15-year-old named Adam Levin. Four up with five to play, having pulled two harsh loss-of-hole violations on his teenage opponent, Trump turned to the small gallery watching and remarked “The kid put up a good fight, didn’t he?” Fired up, Levin rallied, won hole after hole, and prevailed in a playoff.

“He didn’t even say ‘Congratulations’ or ‘Good match’,” recalls the victor. “He’s a total asshole with no character.”

“[Trump] may wrap up a very sketchy 77 at noon,” says Reilly. “On the ride home, it’ll be 75. By dinner, 72.”

But, at least the President is generous and employs his Trump Bump with others too…

Lee Trevino ran into him after shooting 72 on one of his courses. “Trump is delighted and wants to start introducing the legend around his clubhouse,” writes Reilly. “This is the great Lee Trevino. He just shot a 70!” For the next person, it was: You know who this is? Lee Trevino. He just shot a 68!” Then it became a 66. Trevino himself recalls: “I had to get out of there before I broke the course record.”

According to Reilly, the billionaire President begrudges paying up when he loses on-course wagers, no matter how insignificant the bet.

“I beat him out of $10,” says an LA Times writer Sam Farmer, quoted in the book. “He handed me two fives, but they wouldn’t quite come out of his hand. He held on to them and made me pull. I thought they were going to rip. When I finally got them, he goes, ‘It’s alright. I’ve got a supermodel girlfriend and my own [Boeing] 727, so I’m OK’.”