Do you want to play golf with Trump? put your ego aside
Better leave your ego in the locker room if you ever get a chance to play golf with Donald Trump. The president of the United States is going to try to alter it at any cost.
During a game with Phil Ruffin, his good friend, Trump told her that he should maybe start from the women's tee. A few years ago he repeatedly taunted an Associated Press reporter after his shot didn't go as far as a professional woman's… that she was ranked first in the world. As president, she had the nerve to poke fun at Ernie Els, who is playing the Masters this week.
"He's very good at upsetting the opposition," says Jim Herman, who worked at one of Trump's clubs before the mogul helped him get on the pro circuit.
Since taking office, Trump has made it clear that he intends to continue playing golf, even though he criticized his predecessor Barack Obama for doing the same.
And he likes to brag about his skills as a golfer. He recently prodded a visiting businessman to the White House to recount how he once made a hole in one years ago.
Golf is one area where Trump can justifiably brag.
At 70, he's still a pretty good player, with a strong drive, unorthodox but effective putts and several holes in one shot, plus 19 club titles.
Last year he had a handicap of 2.9, higher than the 3.5 that the legendary Jack Nicklaus has at 77 years old.
“He has to give me two shots” ahead, said Nicklaus, who is retired.
In his 10 weeks as president, Trump visited some of his golf clubs 17 times.
Trump says he uses golf for business and political contacts.
Last Sunday, for example, he invited Senator Rand Paul, who opposes the health plan promoted by the president, to play golf on his course in northern Virginia.
Paul said Monday that Trump likes to talk about "how do you get a deal done and get everybody on board, and he likes to do it through golf."
Trump also played golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in February, using the club Abe had given him just days before the election. According to the White House, they used the occasion to promote relations in Asia.
Els, who also played with the two presidents that day, commented that he did not only talk about business.
"He dedicated it to me for my game," he said. "It's one more. He didn't speak ill of women or anything like that."
Trump and former House Speaker John Boehner, himself an avid golfer, became friends over text messages after meeting at a golf course.
The president doesn't just talk business when he plays golf. He talks about golf when he does business.
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said that during a White House meeting last month, Trump "talked about the type of driver he uses: Titleist, 9-degree loft, Doonbeg... You have to have a good wrist to make it go straight." .
During a meeting with CEOs at the White House in February, Trump urged GE's Jeff Immelt to recount the time he saw him make a hole in one in the early 2000s.
"We were trying to convince him to do (the TV show) 'The Apprentice'. He goes to a par 3 on his course. He comes up to us and says, 'Do you realize I'm the richest golfer in the world?' And right away he scores a hole in one”.
Trump corrects him: “It's impressive, impressive. But what I said, to be precise, was that he was the best golfer among the rich”.
Since he became president, Trump has changed his speech and now criticizes Obama not for playing golf, but for not having played with people who could have been useful to him.
Trump does not always play with people who can serve him. He has a group of friends that he plays with regularly and is provocative.
"I'm upset with him because one time he said to me, 'If you're going to play with me, get off the women's tee' because I don't hit him very far," said Ruffin, one of Trump's best friends. “He gives it everything. He is a great player”.
In 1993 Trump scored what he said was his third hole in one at a pro-am tournament in Spyglass Hill, California.
"I hope I don't have to buy 25,000 people a drink," he joked, according to The New York Times.
Trump is not interested in making golf more accessible to people who are not rich.
Last year he told the Golf Channel: “I want golf to be something that people aspire to, that they dream of one day being admitted to a club. For that, you have to be a successful person.”
