Even golf has turned its back on Trump
WERE we glad to see it happen? No doubt. Was there even a little bit of schadenfreude when we read about it? Absolutely there was. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. We can picture him now sputtering into his diet coke, the ornately thatched orange weave atop his head struggling to stay in place as his anger rose, bigly. Here it was, for perhaps the first time in his life: a consequence of his actions.
Not for a moment, though, do we ascribe any sort of credit to the PGA of America for their decision to pull the PGA Championship in 2022 from Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf course in New Jersey. This was no profile in courage. This was ass-covering, plain and simple. Fine as it goes, and it’s nice to see that an outright lurch towards fascism is a red line that the PGA is willing to draw, but the events of last week were merely the latest in a long line of grotesqueries perpetrated by the out-going president.
If anything the PGA’s move only serves to underline their timidity up to now. Reporting suggests the PGA had considered acting before this current baleful impasse. Their failure to do so in the face of his vile rhetoric – the storming of the Capitol was merely the logical end-point of his months long campaign of incitement – and policies won’t be or at least shouldn’t be washed away by this. Maybe their timidity was a consequence of the comfort and affinity so many professional golfers have shown Mr Trump and his party over the years. We’re not talking about Rory McIlroy playing a round of golf with Trump in 2017 – he says he was respecting the office and not the person and we accept that at face value – rather we’re talking about a poll conducted by Sports Illustrated before the 2016 election which showed that Donald Trump was the most popular candidate in the Republican Primary (34%) amongst a meaningful sample of professional golfers and that the group skewed far more Republican than Democratic.
Golf, especially in the states, is seen as a rich man’s game so perhaps that’s not altogether that surprising. Remember in 1992 the US Ryder Cup team – none of whom had voted for President Bill Clinton – had to be strong-armed by Tom Watson into attending a White House reception for them with the famously golf-loving Democrat. Still it’s nice to see Trump being ostracised by people he would have considered his own. It really shouldn’t have taken until the events of last week for people to see Trump for what he is, but if it serves as a clarifying moment then maybe some good can come from it.