C’mon, cut McIlroy some slack, it was just a round of golf
ON Friday afternoon, I rode in one of President Trump’s golf buggies at Trump National Doral just outside Miami. He wasn’t in it, you understand, but it is his course, so he owned it. A couple of hours later, I had a drink in the Champions’ Bar and Grill in the Doral clubhouse. And so I put money in the President’s pocket.
It was my first time at Doral and I was impressed. It felt like golfing heaven.
If I ever got the chance to cover a tournament there, I’d jump at it. If I ever got the opportunity to interview Trump about golf, I think I’d probably jump at that too.
Does any of this suggest that I endorse the wider views of President Trump or that I support the idea of a ban on nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the US? Does it mean I’m in favour of building walls or the fascistic banning of news organisations from Press conferences or demeaning women?
Does it mean I’m not aware of the dangers of normalising some of Trump’s behaviour? I don’t think so. It just means I liked Doral and the history associated with it. It also means it would be rather hypocritical of me to condemn Rory McIlroy for playing 18 holes with the president last Sunday.
Sure, part of me would have liked McIlroy to have turned down Trump’s invitation because the fight against Trump and what he stands for is a fight worth having. But if we’re looking for golfers to be the first to man the barricades, then we are in even more trouble than we thought.
In the hierarchy of those normalising Trump, McIlroy is a lot lower down the pecking order than the news organisations who attended the White House Press conference on Friday when their rivals were told they could not be there. That was important. McIlroy’s game of golf was not.
McIlroy is not here to sate our need for a new sporting icon for the protest movement. That is not his world. His world is gated communities and rigid rulebooks. He is a child of the country clubs of the PGA Tour, not a character from For Whom the Bell Tolls. To imagine otherwise is a fantasy.
Not every sportsman has the conviction of Muhammad Ali.
Not every sportswoman is an outspoken radical like Billie Jean King. We are often drawn to anti-establishmentarians because they symbolise rebellion and independence, but some would rather walk a different path.
And anyway, why should agreeing to a round of golf imply support for all, or any, of Trump’s views? The simple truth is that it doesn’t. Does a conversation imply support? No. Does a debate? No.
McIlroy has an acquaintance with Trump that pre-dates his election as President anyway. On the upper level of the club shop at Doral, Trump has displayed in a frame a letter that McIlroy sent him after the 2015 WGC-Cadillac Championship.
‘This wasn’t an endorsement nor a political statement of any kind,’ McIlroy wrote on Twitter on Friday night. ‘It was, quite simply, a round of golf. Golf was our common ground, nothing else.
‘To be called a fascist and a bigot by some people because I spent some time in someone’s company is ridiculous.’