Women left to fend for themselves as Trump circus looms at U.S. Open
There’s no escaping talk about The Donald at his home course, says Chris Stevenson.
Here in the rolling hills of central New Jersey, about an hour’s drive from New York City, the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster is tucked among the horse farms whose white fences line the roads, mile after mile. It’s quite a pastoral setting. But the atmosphere around the U.S. Women’s Open has been anything but peaceful as the best players in the world get ready to tee off in the season’s third major on Thursday.
Given the tournament is being hosted on a course owned by Donald Trump, whose controversial presidency has divided a country, one of the storylines has been how the USGA could host a women’s championship here, at a facility owned by a man whose sexual aggression toward women was self-described in that Access Hollywood tape made public during the U.S. election campaign.
The USGA and the players have tried to keep the focus on golf, but that hasn’t stopped the questions from being asked. Over and over. It probably would have been a good idea for USGA executive director Mike Davis, who isn’t usually part of the annual state of the championship news conference, to have been on hand Tuesday given the circumstances, especially since the course is only about six kilometres from the USGA headquarters in Far Hills, N.J.
Or even USGA president Diana Murphy. It’s what leaders should do.
But they weren’t there to justify their organization’s decisions and the players were left to parry.
Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., summed up the attitude of most of the players this week: “It’s the U.S. Open. I’m trying to win it,” the 19-year-old said. “I’m trying not to let my focus go on too much else. Winning the U.S. Open is everybody’s main goal all year.”
With rumours Trump’s motorcade will roll in here this weekend, the competition could well wind up outside the big tent at the circus.
This is a special place for Trump. He bought 535 acres in 2002 for a reported US$35 million after ex- General Motors executive John DeLorean, the former owner, went bankrupt. DeLorean’s mansion is the clubhouse. The six-door garage, which once sheltered his gullwinged, stainless steel cars made famous in the Back to the Future trilogy, is now the pro shop. The doors have been converted into arched windows.
It’s the first golf facility Trump built from scratch. Tom Fazio designed two 18-hole courses that opened in 2004 (the U.S. Open is being held on the Old Course).
There’s a story Trump wanted to be buried near the first tee. Judging by the line of questioning this week, there are a couple of media members here who would be happy to start digging.
Trump National Bedminster has become “The Summer Whitehouse” and it’s expected he will be on the property this weekend, though two-time major winner Brittany Lincicome told the Chicago Tribune: “Hopefully, maybe, he doesn’t show up, and it won’t be a big debacle, and it will be about us and not him.”
(Lincicome, a frequent Twitter user, decided to take a break this week after the nasty backlash she received after that comment).
So the players are left to play around the elephant on the course. They have been stuck in an unplayable lie by the USGA, which entered into an agreement to have Trump host the event in 2012, long before all the controversies that came with his successful run for the presidency. The USGA could have tried to move the event, but it’s not as easy as it sounds given the logistics of hosting, the course preparation that begins years in advance and the potential threat of being sued by Trump for breaking a contract.
For players like Henderson, the U.S. Open is the most prestigious tournament in women’s golf and carries with it the biggest purse: US$5 million, with almost US$1 million going to the winner, and a 10-year exemption from qualifying for the championship. A win here can be life-changing.
It’s easy to say some players should have taken a stand and boycotted the event. None have.
“Disappointed you are playing this week,” tweeted “jacob” at player Lizette Salas, who tweeted after Trump’s victory in November: “After last night, this country isn’t what I thought it was. I ask the whole world pray for the citizens who still believe in morals.”
Replied Salas on Wednesday morning: “Sorry you feel that way, but I deserve to play MY national championship alongside the best players in the world,” along with a purple heart emoji.
The USGA has forced many of the players into the difficult position of having to swing while they hold their noses this week — and that’s got nothing to do with the smell that comes from the horse barns in the neighbourhood.