{"id":119889,"date":"2025-08-05T03:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T03:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/119889\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T03:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T03:53:11","slug":"golf-pros-call-bs-on-trumps-golf-record-after-cheating-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/119889\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf Pros Call BS on Trump\u2019s Golf Record After \u2018Cheating\u2019 Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump, 79, claims to have won<\/a> yet another golf tournament this weekend but clips of his round that emerged on social media have raised serious questions about his supposed talent on the course.<\/p>\n

The White House claimed he had won at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, shooting a 69 and a 67 despite having a technique that pros told the Daily Beast is clearly \u201clacking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House posted a picture of a scorecard with the caption \u201cWinning on and off the course,\u201d but the use of official accounts to celebrate his supposed 11-shot victory this weekend enraged commentators. Golf author Rick Reilly claimed that a clip showing Trump\u2019s caddie dropping a ball on the green was final proof that Trump has been cheating all these years.<\/p>\n

\"CaddieVideo footage shows Trump’s caddie throwing a ball down onto the green. X <\/p>\n

\u201cSo you know, it\u2019s NEVER legal for your caddie to drop a ball. YOU can drop one, but never on a green. And since this was a full-score event, it\u2019s not legal for Trump to drag the ball into the hole,\u201d adding \u201cNo, no, never. Our president is a f—ing golf cheat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TrumpThe president then dragged the ball into the hole. X <\/p>\n

Trump claimed to have won 18 club championships as of 2019 when Reilly, a former Sports Illustrated columnist, tallied Trump\u2019s boasts in his book Commander in Cheat. The president has celebrated several more \u201cvictories\u201d since then, taking him past the 20-trophy mark. All of these wins are thought to have been played out at his own courses.<\/p>\n

Golf Digest reported in 2017 that his handicap was an impressive 2.8.<\/p>\n

But cheating allegations muddy the waters around his claims of an illustrious sporting history, and experts told The Daily Beast that\u2014without assistance\u2014his game is not at that level. \u201cThe swing itself is not likely a technique that would accomplish 18 club championships or a 2.8 handicap,\u201d Robert Macgregor, a U.S.-based professional golf coach at TeachMe.To, told the Daily Beast after analyzing footage from Trump\u2019s visit to his Turnberry Golf Course in Scotland last month.<\/p>\n

\"DonaldThe President chips one out the bunker on a round in Scotland REUTERS\/Phil Noble <\/p>\n

All of the golf pros who spoke to the Daily Beast were impressed with Trump\u2019s game for a man of his age and agreed that he was an above-average player. That, however, is not the same as being a serial tournament champion.<\/p>\n

One PGA professional was confident that there are parts of Trump\u2019s game that would prevent him from winning multiple golf tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can clearly step up to a ball and strike it, but when it comes to the short game, he looks like he\u2019s going to be found out sooner or later,\u201d coach Craig Normansell told the Daily Beast. \u201cIt certainly doesn\u2019t look like the level of someone who\u2019s won 18 club championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

Analysis by Forbes on July 30 claimed Trump had spent 45 of his first 191 days back in office playing golf, while at the time of press, DidTrumpGolfToday.com<\/a> claimed that he has played on 24.9 percent of his days in office. <\/p>\n

YouTube coach Danny Maude, who has 1.5 million followers, said that given the amount he plays, he should be a good golfer but pointed out some weaknesses. \u201cThere are clearly faults in his golf swing,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of those faults come from probably some stiffness\u2014you know, as we get a bit older, we don\u2019t move like we normally do.”<\/p>\n

\"Trump\u201cHe might be able to stand there and beat a driver like most people can, but when it comes to the artistry side of playing… that, for me, looks like he\u2019s lacking a little bit.\u201d REUTERS\/Phil Noble <\/p>\n

More footage from Scotland\u2014where an open course allowed unprecedented amounts of social media video to be captured\u2014showed Trump driving in a golf buggy with two men in orange jackets walking nearby, before one appears to drop a ball on the fairway in the president\u2019s path. It was a similar maneuver\u2014apparently well-rehearsed\u2014to the alleged cheating incident at Bedminster this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone was saying that this looks like cheating, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on here. Obviously, you\u2019re not allowed to chuck a ball down on the fairway in normal medal rounds but maybe what we\u2019re seeing here is him just having a bit of fun,\u201d Maude told ITV.<\/p>\n

John Means, who runs John Means Golf Camps and is the former head coach at the University of Idaho, told the Daily Beast that even if it was true that Trump had a handicap of 2.8, it may not mean that much. \u201cThe handicap system in the U.S. is seriously flawed,\u201d he said, explaining that you could have a low handicap and still regularly shoot well over-par. \u201cAnd although Trump does not have a fundamentally sound golf swing, it certainly is possible to have a 2.8 handicap and also average over 80 per round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Normansell, who has been a professional golfer based in the U.K. for 14 years, broke down Trump\u2019s technique and explained why it would not have won him more than a dozen golf tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s a gross club championship\u2014ie, no handicap, no net, nothing\u2014I\u2019d be very surprised,\u201d Normansell said. \u201cHe can clearly strike a golf ball, he\u2019s clearly got a consistent setup, but relative to the management and the short game side, 18 seems a little bit out there in my opinion… I\u2019d be surprised if he had, it\u2019s certainly more than I\u2019ve achieved.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TrumpTrump strikes a pose between shots at Turnberry REUTERS\/Phil Noble <\/p>\n

On a bunker shot, Normansell added that Trump\u2019s technique looked very \u201cout of the ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went to play what we call a bump and run shot just over the side of a fringe of a bunker for a flag that was 20 yards away from him\u2014he looked yippy, it didn\u2019t look like it had much technique behind it, it looked like quite a fearful shot. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe might be able to stand there and beat a driver like most people can, but when it comes to the artistry side of playing short game shots where you\u2019ve got to have feel and good perception of where to land the ball, that, for me, looks like he\u2019s lacking a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cTrump looks like he can hit a ball, but when it comes to the short game side\u2014if you put in the wrong place at the wrong time\u2014 it could be quite amusing watching him play some shots.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked what he thought Trump\u2019s handicap would be, Normansell took a stab, saying he guessed it would be between 12 and 18, a far cry from the alleged 2.8 he was reported to have by Golf Digest in 2017. <\/p>\n

Asked if there was any scenario where having your caddie throw the ball onto the green or the fairway would not be regarded as cheating, he laughed, and said: \u201cNo, absolutely not. No!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump, 79, claims to have won yet another golf tournament this weekend but clips of his round…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":119890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1605,1430,6313,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-119889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-donald-trump-jr","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114974137132073023","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}