{"id":19126,"date":"2025-04-14T11:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/19126\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T11:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T11:59:14","slug":"donald-trump-picks-british-winner-of-the-masters-but-snubs-rory-mcilroy-golf-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/19126\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump picks British winner of the Masters but snubs Rory McIlroy | Golf | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy<\/a> might have stormed back into contention at the Masters<\/a> with a superb second round of 66, but it doesn\u2019t seem like he impressed Donald Trump<\/a>. Despite being a golf fanatic, the US president has been absent from the tournament at Augusta, although he has still had his say following an exhilarating two days of action.<\/p>\n

McIlroy moved to six under par on Friday, leaving him just two shots off leader Justin Rose. Sandwiched between them is Bryson DeChambeau<\/a> on seven under, a player well known to the 78-year-old. DeChambeau joined Trump\u2019s campaign trail prior to his election win last November and was regularly seen at his rally events.<\/p>\n

Trump referenced his friend when asked who he was now backing to win the tournament. He also named one British golfer among his leading contenders, but it wasn\u2019t McIlroy.<\/p>\n

Trump said: “They’re all friends of mine. They have some great ones. Scottie Scheffler’s great. Bryson DeChambeau is great. Justin Rose, they’re all friends of mine. It’s going to be a very good Masters. Looks like it’s going to be a very good Masters. Some fantastic golfers at the top.”<\/p>\n

Like McIlroy, the 44-year-old Rose is challenging for a maiden green jacket. He faces a serious task to hold off the world\u2019s best over the next 36 holes but has at least been boosted by the backing of the US president.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s involvement in golf extends beyond being a fan. He owns 16 courses worldwide and has been involved in the talks over a potential merger between the PGA Tour<\/a> and LIV Golf<\/a>, although an agreement is yet to be reached.<\/p>\n

Ironically, McIlroy publicly endorsed Trump\u2019s involvement after he returned to power. He said his involvement would be \u201cgood for the game of golf\u201d if he could influence a deal.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s own prowess on the course, however, has long been the subject of scepticism. Trump\u2019s claim to have a 2.8 handicap, as well as a number of his scores and tournament wins, have been ridiculed by critics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy might have stormed back into contention at the Masters with a superb second round of 66,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[32,12573,2826,7644,4287,79,4297,12572,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-19126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-donald-trump-golf","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-mcilroy-masters","12":"tag-rory-mcilroy","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-the-masters","15":"tag-trump-masters","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114336206910618717","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}