Trump, Notorious Golf Cheat, Claims He Beat Phil Mickelson’s Score at Bedminster Course

Peter Wade
·3 min read
3.4k
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

While in office, Donald Trump played more golf than any modern president, and the stories about him cheating at the sport are rampant. There’s an entire book devoted to his alleged flaunting of the game’s rules. Despite his reputation, Trump insists on claiming he regularly wins tournaments, but suspiciously only at his own courses.

The former president on Saturday wrote on Truth Social about a recent senior tournament at Bedminster, his New Jersey links, claiming he won its senior tournament. “I am pleased to report, for those that care, that I just won the Senior Club Championship (must be over 50 years old!) at Bedminster (Trump National Golf Club), shooting a round of 67,” Trump wrote.

As Meidaite points out, that score is an implausible eight strokes lower than the score of 75 that renowned pro and 6-time major champion Phil Mikelson shot on the same course two weeks earlier during a Saudi-backed LIV Golf tournament. The outlet did note, however, that because it was a senior tournament, Trump likely played from different tees than the pros were starting from, and there may have been other changes to the course, such as the height of the rough, to make it more friendly to amateur golfers.

Trump acknowledged in his post that people will doubt his score. “Now, some people will think that sounds low, but there is no hanky/lanky,” Trump said. “Many people watch, plus I am surrounded by Secret Service Agents. Not much you can do even if you wanted to, and I don’t. For some reason, I am just a good golfer/athlete — I have won many Club Championships, and it is always a great honor!”

It’s a laughable claim, that Trump couldn’t cheat because he’s accompanied by Secret Service agents. In his book, Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, Rick Reilly quoted players who claimed Trump’s caddies and Secret Service protection actually aid the former president’s cheating by routinely moving his ball into a better position.

Trump was caught fudging his score at another tournament earlier this year. In January, Trump claimed he won the Senior Club Championship at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, but skipped playing the first round, instead posting a score he had shot two days before the tournament began.

Lying about his golf game isn’t the only tall tale Trump told last week. The former president also likely fudged his height and weight when he was arrested in Georgia for his alleged attempts to interfere with the state’s 2020 election results. Trump claimed he was 6’3″ and weighed 215 pounds — a full 30 pounds less than was reported at his last White House physical.

Unfortunately for Trump, the former president said his legal troubles are preventing him from playing in (and possibly lying about) another upcoming tournament at one of his courses. “I have the Staysure Senior PGA Championship in Aberdeen, Scotland, on my great course, and I can’t go,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday. “I have to stay around and fight off the Crazed Radical Left Lunatics, Communists, Marxists, and Fascists.”

More from Rolling Stone

Best of Rolling Stone

Click here to read the full article.