The Golf of Hormuz

One of the more amusingly idiotic stories the last few days has been Trump bragging that he not only won his Bedminster Club Golf Championship, but did so with a score of two-under par 70. This has gotten widely ridiculed for the concept of Trump claiming (again) that he supposedly won his club's championship (around his 43rd, so he says), something that well-regarded sportswriter Rick Reilly has explained in detail all the reasons why this is ludicrous. The most common way Trump "wins", Reilly says, is that when he buys a club, or builds a new course, he plays the first round and declares that the club championship. Moreover, there are not only countless stories of Trump regularly cheating, but video of it.

What I've noted, as well, is that -- beyond supposedly "winning" -- is that it's incredibly improbable that at as difficult a course as Bedminster, Trump at 80-years-old shot a 70. Unless he only played 15 holes. Even an 80-year-old former pro wouldn't shoot 70. So...Trump???!! In one of the rare times we have an accurate score for Trump, 20 years ago when he was 60, we do know he averaged 17 over par each day during a three-day tournament. Which would mean, depending on what par was, he likely averaged 89. But the most foolish part of the story, that's got attention, but not nearly as much as the ridicule, is how tone-deaf does Trump and the White House (and Fox "News") have to be to promote how "amazing" this is that Trump had a wonderful round of golf...in the middle of a war he started and can't end, the Gulf of Hormuz still closed, while inflation is rising, the price of gas is soaring again, families are struggling, losing their healthcare, Medicare subsidies for prescription drugs are cut for seniors, Trump made $2.2 billion on crypto, wants to keep a $1.8 billion slush fund to pay off those he's pardoned and prohibit the IRS from auditing him. But hey, he supposedly shot a 70 and supposedly won his country club golf championship!

CNN political commentator Jamal Simmons addressed this yesterday, though the funniest part was when the subject was brought, he had to fight to keep from showing how mortified he was. "I'm trying to compose myself," he said, "because it's a little embarrassing to have the leader of the country spend his time doing this! Look, for average Americans, we see that personal savings are going down. We see the credit card delinquencies are going up. Gas is back up over $4 a gallon. And here they have the President of the United States spending his time talking about what's happening in a golf tournament that he may or may not have won, because we don't know. Sometimes the president doesn't tell the truth about things."

"[I] just don't know how the American public is going to look at this and say, this president is focused on our concerns, [and] our agenda. Instead, this guy seems to be focused on his own golf game." That segment on Trump and his golf starts about 1:00 into the video.

By the way, I highly recommend the wonderful book that Rick Reilly wrote back in 2020 about Trump and golf, Commander in Cheat: How golf explains Trump. You can find it on Amazon here.

The book is extremely entertaining and fun to read. Reilly has actually played several rounds with Trump, so his understanding of the subject comes from first-hand experience, as well as having covered Trump and golf for many years, including being invited by Trump to give him tours of his courses. And as an accomplished sportswriter, he has interviewed pro golfers about playing golf with Trump and interviewed caddies and businessmen who've played with him, as well. Along with, as I mentioned, going into Trump's long history of claiming club championships.

The stories are detailed, funny and eye-rolling, but what makes the book so good is that it's not just about golf. Reilly also dives pretty deep into politics and explains how (very surprisingly) golf has literally impacted some decisions Trump has made while in office, and he also goes into a long story about how golf is much more at the heart of Trump's battle with Scotland and windmills than most people suspect. And it's not just me liking the book, it has a 4.6 rating on Amazon, from 5,377 reviews.