Senior golfers in a hole over Trump
Pros stumble defending president
POTOMAC FALLS, VA. There is no sport as inextricably linked to Donald Trump as golf. It’s the only sport Trump plays, and he plays it every chance he gets. He owns courses around the world, and this year alone two of them will host major championships, the U.S. Women’s Open in New Jersey in July and this week’s KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club near Washington, D.C.
A trip up the Potomac River to Trump’s Northern Virginia retreat on the eve of the senior men’s major tournament reveals the delicate dance that is taking place between the controversial and embattled U.S. president and golf ’s numerous stakeholders. It’s an exercise in initial support, followed by nervous retreat. Everyone is happy to be here, of course, but no one really wants to talk about it. In other words, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Trump is thousands of miles away in Europe at the moment, but he’s also right here. His name is emblazoned in red over Rocco Mediate’s right breast. It’s in blue over Fred Funk’s heart. They have a relationship with Trump’s golf brand; Mediate for seven or eight years now, he estimates, and Funk just this year.
“President Trump is my friend,” Mediate said. “He has been my friend since 2008. This isn’t a bandwagon-jump-onthe-thing-because-he’s-president stuff. That’s just not it.”
He praised Trump and his family and said he has had a few fans “tossed” from tournaments for criticizing him for wearing Trump’s name on his chest. So it seemed logical to ask him as a friend of Trump’s what he thought of the president’s comments that came to light during the campaign, including bragging about sexually assaulting women, mocking a disabled person and attacking a Gold Star family. “I, I don’t know,” Mediate said. He turned to a PGA communications staffer sitting beside him.
“Do I need to talk about this stuff at all, because it’s kind of like not my …”
“It’s your choice,” came the reply.
“It’s not my forte really,” Mediate said. “I was talking about him, right, but all of the stuff that happened — we, I basically came here to talk about the tournament …” It wasn’t just Mediate. Funk, the one with Trump’s name over his heart, said he would “get in their face” if golf fans got on him about his shirts. So it was only natural to ask him if it’s always easy to defend Trump, or are there some things he finds hard to defend?
He said he didn’t want to get into politics, then jumped right into politics with a strong defense of Trump’s policies on less regulation, smaller government, border protection, a bigger military and lower taxes.
But ask him about Trump’s controversial comments and actions, and Funk wanted no part of it. “I wasn’t trying to defend it. I wasn’t asked to. I wasn’t trying to.”
Do you have something to say about it now?
“Not really. No.”
Unfortunately, Funk wasn’t in the interview room for five minutes when he uttered a sexist remark. He was joking about how he gets new fairway metals every birthday to keep up with lengthening golf courses and said, “I feel like I should be on the ladies tour right now.”
He immediately caught himself with another attempt at humor: “I didn’t mean that in a derogatory sense, not at all. Just because Annika (Sorenstam) outdrove me, I’m a little bitter, but, no …”
But, no, indeed. It was fascinating that those blatantly sexist words came so easily to him. They tumbled off his tongue as if he had said them a hundred times before. Perhaps this was the first time, but it didn’t sound like it.
This was a man who sounded quite comfortable delivering a snide remark about women’s golf. This was the man with Trump’s name over his heart.
“President Trump is my friend. ... This isn’t a bandwagonjump-on-thething-becausehe’s-president. ... That’s just not it.” Rocco Mediate