Like it or not, Trump’s a big deal
Golf associations try to brush off politics of playing pro tournaments at the president’s courses
“You know, the USGA, since its founding in 1894, has never been involved with politics.” — Mike Davis
They are staging a golf tournament toward the eastern edge of Virginia’s Loudoun County this week, right on the shores of the Potomac River, less than 45 km from the White House. In another time, it might be nice to chat about whether the course is fit to host a major championship or whether Bernhard Langer’s recent performance on the Champions Tour, for the over-50 set, compares to other runs of dominance golf has produced in the past.
But the host club for the Senior PGA Championship is Trump National Golf Club-Washington, D.C. Its very name grabs the eye, if not fully raises the brow above it.
There’s no telling what news will break when, for the first time in the Donald Trump presidency, a Trump property will host a golf tournament. But something will happen because if we have learned anything over the past five months, it’s that something always does. And now golf finds itself in the middle of whatever the news cycle might churn up.
The golfers, for the most part, don’t mind.
“President Trump is my friend,” said Rocco Mediate, who won this event last year.
“I think he’s doing a hell of a job,” said John Daly, who said he has been a friend of the president for 25 years. “I really do.”
“I believe in almost every policy he believes in,” said Fred Funk, who wore a shirt with Trump in block letters over his heart.
So in case there was any question about which political direction the Champions Tour leans, well, now we know. Wait. What’s that you say? “We’re simply not going to cross that line into politics.”
That last quote was from Mike Davis, head of the U.S. Golf Association. The USGA has nothing to do with the event at Trump’s course in Sterling, Va., because the Senior PGA is staged by the PGA of America. However, both organizations know something about wading in Trump’s waters. Davis was speaking to reporters Wednesday at another Trump National in Bedminster, N.J., because that club will host the U.S. Women’s Open later this summer.
In an odd way for that women’s event, the existence of the Access Hollywood tape from last year might be more important than the existence of any tape Trump may or may not have of conversations in the Oval Office. It’s hard to imagine a field of women competing on the course owned by a man who said he routinely sexually assaulted women, but that’s where we are.
“Let me make it very clear that (when) we came here, this was all about coming to a great golf course to play the greatest championship in women’s golf,” Davis said. “You know, the USGA, since its founding in 1894, has never been involved with politics. Our focus is solely on the game of golf and we appreciate that there’s some out there that want to make this a political event, but we’re not.”
But Trump’s name on the entry way and the fact that his mail is addressed to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW makes these political events, whether anyone wanted it to be or not. Here is the intersection at which golf finds itself: The preferred sport of an extraordinarily controversial president, who happens to own a slew of golf properties worldwide, several of which were contracted to host tournaments before the boss even decided to run for office. This isn’t George W. Bush playing a weekend 18 in Kennebunkport, Maine, or Dwight D. Eisenhower becoming a member at Augusta National. This is a sitting president watching his business properties gain stature by hosting marquee sports events.
Yes, in some ways, it’s important the PGA of America agreed to bring the Senior PGA to Loudoun County, as well as the 2022 PGA Championship to Trump’s Bedminster property, in May 2014, more than a year before Trump announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination. The USGA awarded this year’s U.S Women’s Open to Trump’s New Jersey course in 2012. Back then, the owner was a reality television star.
But now, he’s the president and the women’s rights group Ultraviolet has collected more than 100,000 signatures on a petition asking Davis to move the U.S. Women’s Open from Trump’s course and protests are planned for Sunday morning at the Senior PGA Championship. So clearly, politics are involved, whether golf wants them to be or not.
But we have this arrangement now, an awkward one at that. Trump may come to his own course Sunday for the final round. If he does, it won’t be just a real estate mogul coming to check out how the staff pulled off the event. It’ll be the president standing on one of his eponymous properties. It’ll be political, commercial and controversial.