USGA wants focus on Women’s Open golf, not Trump’s course

BEDMINSTER,N.J.>> The USGA insists its focus is going to be on golf and not politics when it conducts the U.S. Women’s Open at a golf course owned by President Donald Trump in less than two months.

Some fans and politicians criticized golf’s governing body for not moving the marquee women’s tournament from Trump National after lewd comments by Trump about women from 2005 surfaced during the presidential campaign.

USGA executive director and chief executive Mike Davis skirted questions about the issue on Wednesday, saying the golf association will not cross into politics even though some fans consider the tournament being staged at the course political.

“When we came here, this was all about coming to a great golf course and playing the greatest championship in women’s golf,” Davis said. “The USGA, since its founding in 1894, has never been involved with politics. Our focus is solely on the game of golf.”

The USGA selected Trump National for the tournament in 2012. The course was built with hosting majors in mind and is a few miles from the USGA’s Far Hills headquarters.

Davis said the USGA makes contingency plans for demonstrations, but local authorities will manage any protesters.

“If we have protesters, that is their right in this country to protest,” Davis said. “What we’re focused on is making sure that those 156 players that are here can play on a golf course in an interrupted way.”

Three Democratic U.S. senators — Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, Edward Markey, of Massachusetts, and Bob Casey, of Pennsylvania — called on the USGA in October to move the event from the New Jersey course and also consider suspending further events at properties owned by the then-Republican presidential candidate because of what they described as a “pattern of degrading and dehumanizing women” over decades.