Browsing: Trumpâs

Thursday was a great day for tournament golf in general and for the LPGA in particular. The Korean golfer Haeran Ryu shot a flawless first-round 64 in a tournament named for Annika Sorenstam, played at a wide-open, good-looking bayfront course near Clearwater, Fla. One-shot behind her was Grace Kim of Australia.

This is the last full-field (108 players) event of the LPGA season, the last chance to qualify for the grand finale, the CME Group Tour Championship, where 60 players will compete for a $4 million winner’s check, the largest prize in women’s golf; the runner-up will pocket $1 million. Rose Zhang, the Stanford student and in her second full year on tour, is a bubble girl for the Tour Championship. Look out, people: Exploding Stories! Would you know these things if Kai Trump, 18-year-old high school golfer and granddaughter of Donald Trump, were not in the field as a sponsor’s exemption? Perhaps not. But she is, and many of us are taking notice where otherwise me might not.

Trump shot a first-round 83. Nobody shot higher.

And therein lies the real beauty in the day. Kai Trump got one of three special sponsor’s invitations to play in the Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican (hostess/sponsor/course). Would she have received the invitation if her paternal grandfather was not the president of the United States, and if she did not have more than 7 million followers on her various social-media platforms? No. Does her presence in this tournament bring the LPGA some added attention, as the tournament sponsors hoped it would? Yes. That’s not where the beauty lies. The beauty lies in the powerful reminder of what tournament golf is all about: the scores. The scores!

If Kai Trump is ever going to become an LPGA player, her stated goal, she’s going to have to do what every card-carrying LPGA player does, and that’s shoot the scores to earn — to earn!— her place. Full stop. That’s why millions of us are drawn to golf. There’s no place to hide. You can tell IG stories until you’re green in the face, but it really doesn’t matter. In tournament golf — most particularly the professional golf we watch in person and whatever screen is nearby — your day can always be summarized by a number. For Haeran Ryu on Thursday, that number was 64, six under par. For Kai Trump, that number was 83, 13 over par.

“I was definitely more nervous than I expected,” Trump told reporters shortly after her round concluded. Surely an honest assessment. “I hit a lot of good shots just to the wrong spots.” A comment you might expect to hear from a good high school golfer. Not one you’re likely to hear from a touring pro.

Trump goes to the Benjamin School in South Florida. Sam Woods, eldest child of Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods, is in her class. Charlie Woods is on the boys’ team there. Kai Trump got pep-talk advice from her grandfather, from Tiger Woods (her mother’s boyfriend), from Annika Sorenstam. She has access to the best golf instructors, fitness experts, equipment fitters, manufacturers, courses, practice facilities and the rest. If Trump wants to make it in professional golf, she’s going to have to rise above all that. It won’t be easy.

“I feel sorry for rich kids now, I really do,” Ben Hogan said in 1983. “Because they’re never going to have the opportunity I had. I know tough things, and I had tough days all my life, and I can handle tough things. They can’t.”

The tournament organizers did not hide from the reason Trump was invited to play in this event. It wasn’t because of her off-the-charts talent. There are likely thousands of teenage golfers across the world who are better than Trump. It’s because of her bloodline, and the social-media reach that has come out of it.

2 ways to think about Kai Trump’s controversial LPGA invite

By:

Josh Schrock

“This is one of the most talked-about women’s golf tournaments that has probably ever existed,” Justin Sheehan, chief operating officer of the Pelican Golf Club, said shortly after Trump’s invitation became public late last month. “The numbers of social-media impressions are staggering. Love it or hate it, it’s getting people to talk about the event.”

This is a new day in golf’s long-standing custom of offering sponsor’s exemptions to golfers, amateur or professional, who can help at the gate and broadly improve the tournament. When Tony Romo, a break-par golfer played in PGA Tour events as an amateur playing as a sponsor’s invitation, the built-in question was, What is the difference between an elite former NFL quarterback who plays good golf and a PGA Tour player?

In other words, it was his athletic skill and the fame that came from it that got him a PGA Tour tee time. When Sorenstam played in a PGA Tour event, the same basic math: What can one of the greatest women golfers do when playing against the men? It was her athletic skill and the fame that came with it that earned her the invitation to the 2003 Colonial.

Kai Trump is not famous because of her athletic gifts (though she did make a most-impressive 20-foot back-of-the rim shot on the first tee of the Wednesday pro-am on her first and only shot). She is famous because of her DNA. It’s a different thing. It’s a different era.

When Trump was invited to play in this event, the invitation went not directly to Trump or to her mother or father or high school coach. It went to her agents. She is represented by GSE Worldwide, the same agency that represents many LIV Golf players. Her asking-price quote for a one-off Instagram video post is $125,000. She is developing her own merchandise line. Will her two days — there is a 36-hole cut in this 72-hole event — in the Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican hurt business no matter what scores she shoots? Not likely.

The levels of confluence here are staggering. Donald Trump, in his first term, gave Tiger Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom shortly after Woods won the 2019 Masters. There’s also a Tiger Woods Villa at Trump Doral in Miami. When Trump was the host of an LPGA event at his course in West Palm Beach, he played in the pro-am with Sorenstam, then the best player in women’s golf. On Jan. 7, 2021, Sorenstam, alongside Gary Player, also received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Trump. Woods, among others, met with Trump in the White House with hopes of resolving the ongoing dispute and tension between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. Trump was an early supporter of the LIV Golf cause. One of his golf buddies is the LIV star and two-time U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau, who is also represented by GSE Worldwide.

So much synergy!

But synergy cannot turn an 80-shooter into a 70-shooter. The golfer shoots what the golfer shoots. The rest is commentary.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

Kai Trump, the US president’s granddaughter and the eldest child of Donald Trump Jr, opened her LPGA career with a 13-over-par 83 on Thursday at The Annika, a debut round that left her at the bottom of the leaderboard and underscored the chasm between elite junior golf and a field stacked with the sport’s top professionals.

The 18-year-old amateur, playing on a much-discussed sponsor’s exemption, began her round on the back nine alongside former major champion Hinako Shibuno and Germany’s Olivia Cowan. She received warm applause when her name was announced on the par-4 10th tee and again after she drove it safely into the fairway, one of the few calm moments in a jittery start.

Trump confessed afterward she was more nervous than when she spoke at the Republican National Convention last year and it showed. She bogeyed her opening four holes, a run of tentative strokes that left her scrambling before she had taken a fifth swing from a fairway. A steady par at the par-5 14th finally stopped the slide, and she mixed two more bogeys with a pair of pars, including a sharp up-and-down at the par-3 16th that drew one of the biggest roars of the early afternoon. She reached the turn in 41.

Her mother, Vanessa, and University of Miami assistant coach Jim Garren walked inside the ropes throughout – one day after Miami formally announced her commitment to join the Hurricanes for the 2026–27 season. What Golf Channel commentators described as the day’s largest gallery trailed along, a mix of supporters, skeptics and onlookers aware that her exemption had dominated American golf discourse for weeks.

The LPGA’s television window expired after Trump’s first hole, an awkward scheduling outcome given the buzz surrounding her debut, but it did nothing to slow the crowds. Fans pressed up against the ropes on nearly every fairway.

The back nine offered more turbulence. Trump dropped a shot immediately after the turn, then ran into real trouble with two double-bogeys over her next four holes. On the par-4 eighth – her 17th – a topped iron produced an audible gasp, only for her to answer with her crispest swing of the day, knocking the following shot to four feet despite Trump looking straight into the sun. Two more bogeys at the finish left her at 83, the highest score of the day.

“The whole time I was nervous without a doubt,†Trump said. “But I thought I did pretty good for a first time, being the youngest player in the field. Now I kind of know how it goes.â€

University of Miami commit Kai Trump plays a sand shot on the first hole at The Annika tournament on Thursday. Photograph: Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

Her presence has split opinion across the US golf establishment. Some analysts argued that the combination of Donald Trump’s granddaughter in the field and WNBA star Caitlin Clark in the pro-am made this one of the tour’s most talked-about weeks in recent memory. Others questioned whether a player ranked No 461 in the American Junior Golf Association should occupy a late-season spot in a field where professionals are fighting for season-ending accolades and – for some – their jobs next year.

Tournament host Annika Sorenstam defended the decision, urging critics to “give this girl a chance.†Pelican Golf Club owner Dan Doyle Jr, whose club controlled the exemption, said Trump’s presence had already driven a noticeable surge in attention, particularly across social media, where she has more than nine million followers. “She’s lovely to speak with,†Doyle said. “And this has created a buzz on top of the other great players we have here.â€

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Trump has repeatedly framed the week as a learning experience. She has been candid about weaknesses in her short game and putting, even as Pelican officials praised her length and ball-striking during practice rounds.

Her support network includes her grandfather, whose advice was to “have fun, don’t get nervousâ€, and Tiger Woods, the 15-times major champion who is dating her mother, Vanessa. Woods told her to “go with the flowâ€, guidance she referenced again Thursday as she recounted regrouping after mistakes.

South Korea’s Ryu Hae-ran led after a six-under 64, one shot ahead of Australia’s Grace Kim. Jennifer Kupcho sat two strokes back, while Charley Hull was among a group one shot further behind – a reminder of just how sharp the standard is at an event that routinely draws one of the LPGA’s strongest fields.

On a Sunday in May in 2017, a little girl stood on the final hole of the Senior PGA Championship in Virginia, watching Bernhard Langer win the event by a shot over Vijay Singh. The girl, Kai Trump, was beside her father, Donald Trump Jr., at a course owned by her paternal grandfather, Donald Trump, then in the first year of his first term as president of the United States. Kai Trump, wide-eyed and 10, looked happy to be there. She was already way into golf.

Eight years later, her grandfather is in the first year of his second term as president and Kai is captain of the girls’ golf team at the Benjamin School in South Florida. Her mother (Vanessa Trump) is dating Tiger Woods. On Tuesday, Kai announced that she has accepted an invitation to play in a mid-November LPGA event in Florida sponsored by Annika Sorenstam.

“What’s up, guys?” Kai said at the start of her 37-second poolside video announcement, posted on TikTok, where she has 3.4 million followers. “I am thrilled to announce that I will be making my LPGA debut in November at the Annika.”

Tuesday night, Kai did a 15-minute Sirius XM radio interview with Sorenstam and her husband, Mike McGee, son of Jerry McGee, a prominent PGA Tour player in the 1970s. McGee said that, according to his math, Kai had more than 8 million followers, combining her different social-media channels.

“I couldn’t do it without my team,” Kai noted.

“I could use some help on my content,” Sorenstam said.

Kai Trump is a good junior golfer with LPGA aspirations who has committed to play golf at the University of Miami, starting next year. There are hundreds of other female teenage golfers with similar profiles. Kai was invited to play in Sorenstam’s event because her paternal grandfather is president of the United States and because her social-media following is massive. Nobody is disputing that.

“I would imagine, since the Tuesday announcement, that this is one of the most talked-about women’s golf tournaments that has probably ever existed,” Justin Sheehan, chief operating officer of the tournament’s host club, Pelican Golf Club, said in a phone interview Thursday. “It’s on news channels and sports channels. The numbers of social-media impressions, I guess they call it, are staggering. Love it or hate it, it’s getting people to talk about the event.

“We’re on a mission to grow this game. Seeing the impact Caitlin had last year was fairly eye-opening.”

Caitlin Clark, the star point guard of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, put her promising golf game on public display at last year’s tournament, playing in the pro-am with Sorenstam. Clark will play in this year’s pro-am again. Sheehan, a former teaching pro who has worked with LPGA players, described Clark as a single-digit golfer with unlimited upside.

Kai Trump with her grandfather at the 2025 Ryder Cup.

getty images

Sheehan, along with his teaching-pro wife, Nathalia Sheehan, played nine holes with Kai Trump at Pelican this year. Asked for a scouting report, Sheehan said that Kai had an impressive swing and LPGA length and, like all young players, was learning about shot selection. (Her caddie for the tournament will be her friend Allan Kournikova, the 21-year-old brother of the retired tennis player Anna Kournikova.) Sheehan declined to make any sort of prediction for what Kai might shoot in the four-day tournament, which begins Nov. 13.

Last year, the 36-hole cut was two over par, 142. Given Kai’s scoring in junior events, where her scores are often in the mid-70s or higher, making the cut would be an astonishing achievement. Sheehan noted that sponsor’s invitations at many professional tournaments go to players with a wide range of skills, including local pros and famous athletes.

Sheehan said that in the event’s first year, in 2020, his future wife, competing as Nathalie Filler, played in the tournament on a sponsor’s exemption. Filler’s main playing qualification was that she was the North Florida PGA Player of the Year. By any ordinary measure, she’s an excellent golfer. Competing against the best players in the world, Filler missed the cut by 12.

As Tiger Woods has often said, getting better at golf comes as a series of “baby steps.” His goal, rising in the game as an amateur, was to dominate at every level at which he played. But he did play in the 1992 Los Angeles Open, on a sponsor’s exemption, as a 16-year-old amateur — and the reigning U.S. Junior Amateur champion. Steph Curry has played in professional events as a sponsor’s exemption, as a scratch golfer and one of the best basketball players in history. Annika Sorenstam played in a PGA Tour event, the 2003 Colonial, on a sponsor’s exemption, and as the most dominant woman golfer in the game. Sheehan noted that Bryson DeChambeau’s social-media following — his videotaped efforts to break 50 on a short course in the company of people including Steph Curry and President Trump — has brought golf to an incalculable number of new-to-golf viewers. He expects Kai Trump’s participation in an LPGA event to do the same. The key numbers here are not her scorecard totals but her social-media reach.

The birth-certificate name of the November event is The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, but players and fans call it the Annika, for the tournament host, the 55-year-old Swedish golf legend who lives in Orlando. Gainbridge, a financial services company, is the tournament sponsor, responsible for the event’s $3.25 million purse, 15 percent of which ($487,000) goes to the winner, if the winner is a pro. You can say, with near certainty, that the winner will be a pro — a Nelly Korda, a Charlie Hull. (Kai Trump will compete as an amateur.) The tournament will be played on the “reimagined” Donald Ross course at the Pelican Golf Club, near Clearwater, Fla. Justin Sheehan, a former teaching pro, is the club’s chief operating officer, and the invitation to Kai Trump comes at the behest of Pelican, which is granted one of the tournament’s three special exemptions.

Why is the White House carting dirt to a golf course? It’s a D.C. mystery

By:

Alan Bastable

Ryan Dever, the tournament director, said in an interview that he extended the invitation to Kai via her agent and that “the communication has been through Kai’s team.”

The event is the last full-field event of the LPGA season, four rounds with a 36-hole cut and 108 players, three of whom are in the field by special invitation.

One spot is reserved annually for a member of the winning team of a collegiate event sponsored by Sorenstam, the Annika Intercollegiate. The winning team was Wake Forest and the team decided that Anne-Sterre den Dunnen of the Netherlands, a senior, would represent the team at Sorenstam’s LPGA event.

A second spot is given by Gainbridge and went to Lauryn Nguyen, a promising Northwestern University golfer. Like Kai Trump, Lauryn Nguyen is making her LPGA pro debut. But, unlike Kai, she did not announce her participation in the event by way of a TikTok posting that traveled the world reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

It really is an extraordinary 37-second clip. In it, Kai is standing beside a golf net beside a backyard pool with a little putting green and chipping area on the side. The pool has a basketball rim for pool dunking and the hedge behind the pool is trimmed to perfection. She is wearing a TaylorMade hat (her grandfather’s preferred brand) and a sky-blue Benjamin School golf shirt that matches the sky above her. The final punctuation of the video is a nothing-but-net iron shot with a smooth, controlled backswing and finishing with good balance. She’s wearing little white ankle socks. She has an interesting speaking style, by which she throws down her right hand to emphasize certain syllables. Millions have seen it. Pretty soon here, millions will see her swing in an LPGA event.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

Donald Trump’s granddaughter will be taking a detour on her way to playing college golf at the University of Miami – Kai Trump will make her LPGA Tour debut next month.

The 18-year-old received a sponsor exemption on Tuesday to play in The Annika at Pelican Golf Club from 13 to 16 November, the penultimate event on the LPGA schedule. The tournament, which has a prize purse of $3.25m, is prestigious and typically has one of the strongest fields of the year outside the majors.

“My dream has been to compete with the best in the world on the LPGA Tour,†Trump said in a release. “This event will be an incredible experience. I look forward meeting and competing against so many of my heroes and mentors in golf as I make my LPGA Tour debut.â€

Trump, the eldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr, is a senior at The Benjamin School in Florida. She has committed to play golf for the Miami Hurricanes next year. She competes in amateur events nationally with the American Junior Golf Association and locally in Florida. She is currently No 461 in the AJGA Girls ranking, having played three events this year.

Trump has more than six million followers on social media and recently started an apparel and lifestyle brand aimed at young women in sports.

“Sponsor invitations are an important way to spotlight emerging talent and bring new attention to our tournaments and the LPGA,†said Ricki Lasky, the chief tour business and operations officer at the LPGA. “Kai’s broad following and reach are helping introduce golf to new audiences, especially among younger fans. We’re excited to see her take this next step in her journey.â€

The Annika already has announced WNBA star Caitlin Clark will return to play in the pro-am on 13 November for the second straight year. Nelly Korda is the defending champion.

By the time Europe finished the job, finally, on Sunday, the golf had the last word. But until the thrilling denouement, the lasting memory of this Ryder Cup threatened not to be a single swing of the club so much as the ugly backdrop: galleries that drifted from partisan into venomous and the organizers who let the line slide until it snapped.

It didn’t happen all at once. For the first day and a half of golf’s most intense rivalry, it was New York-loud without being unruly. Then Saturday afternoon arrived and the tenor shifted. Rory McIlroy, the visiting lightning rod, kept stepping off shots as volleys of abuse landed in the quiet of his pre-shot routine. Shane Lowry played teammate and minder. Justin Thomas, not exactly a shrinking violet, began shushing his own end of the grandstand so his opponents could putt.

There’s a difference between atmosphere and interference, and Bethpage spent too much of the weekend blurring the two. Boos during practice swings and the sing-song “YEW-ESS-AY! YEW-ESS-AY!†after a European miss were tiresome, but survivable. What crept in on Saturday was different: insults aimed at players’ wives, homophobic slurs, cheap shots at McIlroy’s nationality dripping with tiresome stereotypes, gleeful reminders of Pinehurst the moment McIlroy crouched over anything inside five feet.

Europe answered with performance. So much for home advantage: for two years the Bethpage sales pitch was the snarling, uniquely American cauldron that would rattle Europe. Message received, but the idiots took it literally. Add the optics of Donald Trump’s fly-in on Friday – fist bumps, photo-ops, galleries dotted with Maga hats and a certain politics of humiliation playing to its base – and the swagger slid easily into license. That doesn’t make the Ryder Cup a referendum. It does explain how quickly the rope line starts to feel like a boundary you’re invited to test.

Next one will be a ‘little bit nicer’, says Lowry after sinking putt to retain Ryder Cup – video

Given the guest of honor’s well-known aversion to losing gracefully, it was hardly a shock that the worst behavior broke out just as America’s chances were slipping away. But the tournament’s response to the ugly crowd conduct on Saturday was woeful. Extra security and a phalanx of New York state troopers materialized around McIlroy’s match at the turn. A couple of spectators were ejected near the main grandstands. The PGA of America said it bolstered policing and pushed more frequent spectator etiquette messages on the big screens. Fine, as far as it goes. But once a thousand people have decided a backswing is their cue, you can’t manage it with a graphic and a frown. Enforcement has to be swift, visible and consequential or it becomes permission by another name.

Sunday brought a tacit admission that the line had been crossed. The first-tee master of ceremonies, the comedian Heather McMahan, stepped down from her role after video showed her leading a chant of “Fuck you Rory!†on Saturday morning. The PGA announced her departure and apology before the singles. If the MC is amplifying the worst instincts in the building, that’s not “energyâ€; it’s an institutional failure.

Luke Donald chose his words carefully as he praised his team’s “anti-fragile†temperament and drew a firm boundary between “raucous†and “personalâ€. Keegan Bradley, the USA captain, bristled at any suggestion the US room had licensed the excess. He called the fans passionate and pointed – not incorrectly – to his team’s flat play as a trigger for their restlessness. But that defense only goes so far. You can be partisan without being toxic. You can fill a grandstand without emptying your standards.

It’s also true that many Americans tried to keep the thing on the rails. Thomas kept waving for hush. Cameron Young never took the bait. Plenty of fans actually supported their own rather than savaging the other lot. Too often, though, they were drowned out by the performative tough guys in flag suits and plastic chains who treat the Ryder Cup like a tailgate with better lawn care.

But framing Bethpage as a one-off misses the larger point. What happened here didn’t invent the tone of American life so much as reflect what’s been an incremental breakdown in public behavior. The country now lives in all-caps, from school-board meetings that sound like street rallies and comment sections that have spilled into the street. The algorithm bankrolls outrage, the put-down is political vernacular and the culture applauds “saying the quiet part out loudâ€. In 2025 you can say almost anything in public and be cheered for it (unless you’re Jimmy Kimmel). Put a rope line and a microphone in front of that mix and you get exactly what you got at the Ryder Cup: people testing boundaries not because the moment needs them to, but because they’ve been told volume is virtue. Some might argue golf, in the US particularly, has always been a sport for white conservatives, but it’s hard to remember galleries calling opposing players “faggots†and openly deriding their wives until recently. What could have changed?

Europe didn’t need rescuing. They rescued themselves. That could be seen on Saturday, when McIlroy and Lowry won their afternoon match two up in the eye of the storm. Rose and Fleetwood then dispatched Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau 3&2 after a tense exchange about who had the stage; then they took the stage and won. Donald’s players came to New York expecting a test of nerve and got it at full blast.

Sunday gave us a memorable finish. But this week will also be remembered for the noise that wasn’t passion, the hostility that wasn’t edge and the adults who mistook the difference. Next time the Cup crosses the Atlantic, at Hazeltine in 2029, whether during Trump’s third term or not, the hosts will have a choice to make about what kind of event they want to run – and what kind of country they want it to reflect.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — You don’t see a lot of foursomes and four-ball play in the elite ranks of professional golf.

You don’t see a lot of snipers, either.

Yet there he was late Friday morning here at Bethpage Black, a sharpshooter with a barrel the length of a driver shaft, keeping a close eye on the proceedings at this 45th Ryder Cup from the top row of the hulking grandstand behind the 18th green and 1st tee. There were other unusual sights and sounds on this first of three days of matches: secret service agents in bulletproof vests patting down fans in eagle-themed shirts and George Washington wigs; seating reserved strictly for the White House press pool; murmurs along the rope lines of Is he here yet?

The he in question wasn’t Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy — it was President Donald J. Trump, who on this 26th day of September became the first U.S. President to attend the Ryder Cup in its nearly 100-year history. Ike, who famously played more than 800 rounds during his presidency, never made it to the matches. Neither did Clinton nor Obama nor either of the golf-mad Bushes. Nope, Trump became the first, soon after he and Air Force One touched down on a nearby airstrip Friday morning.

After deplaning, Trump, who already was aware of the U.S.’s early deficit, told reporters, “We’ll get it done. One way or the other we’ll get it done.” The president then joined a motorcade to the fabled “People’s Course.” Escorting Trump was his granddaughter, Kai, a talented golfer in her own right.

Ryder Cups always are deeply nationalistic affairs, but when you add the leader of the free world to the mix at a Ryder Cup on American soil, the star-spangled vibes intensify all the more. Whatever your politics, you could feel the energy levels rise as the President’s appearance neared. Also helping that much-needed shift in atmosphere for the U.S. squad, which was at risk of losing all four matches in the morning foursomes, was the outcome of the fourth and final of those matches: a 2-up win on the 18th green by Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay over Robert MacIntyre and Viktor Hovland. As the Americans celebrated their victory, the familiar refrains of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” blared from speakers around the grandstand.

A few minutes later came the next jolt: the President’s arrival through a tunnel that leads out from beneath the grandstand to the first tee. When earlier this month Trump attended the U.S. Open (tennis edition) in Flushing Meadows, about 30 miles east of here, he was roundly booed. This time, though, from his viewing pen behind a sheet of bulletproof glass by the 18th green, he heard more roars than jeers and even one short-lived “Don-ALD Trump” chant. When U.S. captain Keegan Bradley appeared at about 12:15 p.m. in advance of the afternoon wave of matches, he pointed at Trump and fist-pumped; the President returned the gesture in kind. Metallica’s spine-tingling “Enter Sandman” — Exit light, Enter night — filled the air. The party was fully on.

Oh, what a difference four years make. In January 2021, in the wake of the attacks on the U.S. Capitol, the PGA of America’s Board of Directors voted to terminate plans for Trump’s club in Bedminster, N.J., to host the 2022 PGA Championship. Other powerful golf entities, including the R&A, which runs the Open Championship, also distanced themselves from Trump. But in the years since, as Trump mounted his political comeback, he also regained influence in the golf world. The PGA Tour is returning to Trump Doral next year for the first time in a decade; LIV Golf and the DP World Tour have partnered with Trump properties; and earlier this year the President convened with Tiger Woods and PGA Tour and LIV leadership in hopes of brokering an agreement between the leagues.

Early U.S. beatdown disproves one lazy Ryder Cup storyline

By:

Dylan Dethier

Trump’s latest welcome-back moment came Friday when he shared his Black course viewing pen with PGA of America CEO Derek Sprague and the association’s president, Don Rea. Among the other golf dignitaries to visit the box were major champions Gary Player and Tom Lehman. When Scottie Scheffler, who was playing in the afternoon’s opening match, emerged from the tunnel and walked to the first tee, he pointed at Trump and smiled. Scheffler’s four-ball partner, J.J. Spaun, also acknowledged Trump by mimicking the President’s signature shimmy: hip-swaying paired with waist-level fist pumps.

The next U.S. pairing in the p.m. wave included the golfer with whom Trump might have the closest relationship: Bryson DeChambeau. The kinship showed. When DeChambeau appeared at the end of the grandstand tunnel, the President was waiting for him. They greeted each other warmly and strolled to the tee together, with Trump at one point wrapping his arm around DeChambeau’s shoulder. Trump watched DeChambeau’s opening blast from just behind the back-right corner of the box and applauded as DeChambeau’s ball found the fairway 20 yards in front of the green.

Moments later DeChambeau was fast-walking his way off the tee toward the fairway. He didn’t get far, though, before he wheeled around and raised his arms in the air to stoke the crowd.

Then it was Trump’s turn. As DeChambeau moved on, the President stopped in front of a Rolex sign behind the tee box, thrust his arms and barked words of encouragement to those within ear shot. The crowd roared again, as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” playing over the P.A.

‘Cause I’m as free as a bird now

And this bird you cannot change

Scores of Ryder Cup fans were denied glimpses of the opening tee shots at Bethpage Black due to stringent security measures put in place before the arrival of Donald Trump.

The US president took his place behind, and briefly on, the 1st tee as the fourball session teed off in the afternoon. By that time, organisers had breathed sighs of relief that early morning issues had resolved themselves. Tee times could not be and were not adjusted for congestion, due to tight Ryder Cup schedules. The PGA of America had warned fans, who paid $750 for standard ground tickets for the opening day, to arrive earlier than usual but many still encountered frustration.

Anticipated heavy congestion was in evidence at and around the main spectator entry point from early morning as tens of thousands gathered to see the start of this eagerly anticipated contest.

Tournament staff audibly complained at being in the same lengthy queues as the public. Airport-style security, which was deployed for a second time near to the 1st hole, led to the competition organisers opening gates at 5am local time – more than two hours before play began – but heavy congestion was still clear as the event got under way.

Traffic issues also led to spectators leaving tournament shuttle buses and walking through residential areas to Bethpage. One Ryder Cup attendee posted footage on social media of a power line exploding near the course; nobody is understood to have been injured but it served as an example of a chaotic morning.

Trump, in the company of his granddaughter Kai, landed nearby on Air Force One shortly after 11am before being driven to the Bethpage clubhouse. The secret service were visible, including on the clubhouse roof, as part of a huge security operation.

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This marks the first time a sitting president has attended the Ryder Cup. Trump was greeted by players, including Europe’s Rory McIlroy, as they walked to the 1st tee having taken advice to avoid the morning session, with organisers fearing greater disruption than that which transpired.