Trump and Golf – Striking balls and more than 18 holes

Mick Mulvenni thought he had defeated Donald Trump. The President and his White House Chief of Staff were playing golf at Trump’s Bedminster Club in 2019, and Mulvenni had three holes left from a stroke.

Mulvenni told the BBC, “I slapped him on the shoulder and joked with him,” I got to you today, “Mulvenni told the BBC. “He looked at me, half smiled, half-virgin and just laughed.”

The President gave birds to two of the next three holes and defeated Mulvenne by two.

Mulvenni, who worked at Trump’s White House for three years in his first term, says that he played the President with golf or in a group only 40 times and never defeated 21 -year -old man. “Just the soul-cruel” is how he described it.

Golf has been a popular activity for many modern American presidents, but there were no similar relations with the game as Trump, which is in Scotland at the end of this week for the opening of a new Trump course near Balmimi in Aberdeenshire.

For presidents such as Barack Obama and George W. Bush, the golf served as a turn from the office burden. For the current president, however, golf is a commercial venture, a networking opportunity and – as Mulvenni said – a fierce competitive venture. On Fairways and Greens, they say, the president is focused on the game and has very little tolerance to play poor shots or slow.

“In fact, if you are slow,” Mulvenni said, “You are not going to be invited and can stay behind on the syllabus.”

British golf journalist Kevin Brown experienced that the first hand was played in 2012 with Trump on his Balmimi course. He said that he was taking the scenes on another hole, when one of his fours, one of the other players told him if Trump asked if he could “get a step”.

Brown said, “He was more concentrated, head down, motoring ahead of us,” Brown said. “Most of the time, he was just playing his game and obviously thinking about the luggage.”

However, after round, Brown spoke to Trump for about an hour about his connection to golf. He said that the passion of the future President was clear.

“He is crazy about golf,” he said. “He knew the background and history of the game. It was impressive.”

Trump, a real estate developer changed the politician, played golf since his college days and bought his first golf property, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach Florida in 1999. Trump Golf currently owns 11 courses in the US and manage three others and is planning new resorts in Oman, Indonesia, Vietnam.

Golf club is a prized occupation for Trump-and not always earning profit. According to the filing with the British government, in 2023, $ 1.83m (£ 1.35m) was lost in Trump’s Balmimi course in 2023-its 11th year was running a loss. On the other hand, Turnberry reported $ 5m in profit.

Trump has several times collided with local authorities on land use and demanded a ban on the construction of wind turbines on the banks of its Balmimi property.

While his American courses have hosted prominent professional tournaments, he has long wants Turnberry, which he will visit this week, to become the site of the future British Open Championship. The historical curriculum has hosted four prestigious competitions, but Trump has no one since purchased property in 2014.

According to Brown, Trump is designed for high-profile golf properties because due to the reputation they provide.

“He just likes quality and lineage,” he said. “This is about attracting the right people – that is, dirty rich businessmen with very deep pockets.”

For example, a round of golf in turnberry costs approximately $ 1,350.

Golf has long been enjoyed by the elite, where rich and powerful can conduct business and create a special relationship – and, recently in many cases especially white and male – environment.

For businessman Trump, it was a route for helpful connections in the construction of its real estate empire. This offered him an instrument to join with American politicians and foreign leaders – even though he promised in 2016 that he had “no time to play golf” if he was ever voted in the White House.

At the beginning of his first presidential post, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gave Trump a Golden Golf Club. The two will later play five rounds together – a friendship was boils that Abe was murdered in 2022.

Trump’s regular golf partners include close political allies such as South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham and Republican, with which he sought to create new connections, such as the 2016 President rival Rand Paul of Kent.

Paul said after the 2017 era with the President, “He is a little better golfer, which I am, but we had a good time, but after the President’s 2017, Paul said that both focused on golf – but also discussed Trump’s tax policies.

In this year’s March, Trump held a golf with Finnish President Alexander Stub in West Palm Beach, participating in a club tournament, while Trump said that both people won. Stub later said that he talked about war in Ukraine, Russia and global security.

“In Finnish history, it is quite rare that the Finnish President has spent so much time with the President of the United States, either physically or on phone or messaging,” Stub told Canadian Broadcaster CBC News.

This is such access, and has an effect, which has made a tea time with a prestigious award for the President’s audience with Trump.

“Anyone who is sophisticated with Donald quickly understands that everything about him is transacting everything about him,” said Professor David K Johnston of Rochester Institute of Technology.

“If you are the head of a company or the head of a nation, you either try and reduce any possible loss, which he can do by buttering you or if you are uncertain then to shape it on something.”

Even at the White House, foreign leaders have tried to cross a golf connection in a friendly reception. When South African President Cyril Ramfosa visited the Oval Office in May, he gave the President a illustrated South African golf book and included golf professionals Erni Els and Ritif Gosen in his national delegation.

However, it did not help a lot, as the meeting developed in an extended confrontation on South African land seizing policies.

While the play was played in front of the gathered press and live television cameras, Trump may see the benefit from his more clown golf outing, as it gives him an opportunity for well -removed meetings from journalists stinging eyes.

The reporters come with Trump on all their public movements, but when the President is on the golf course, he is kept well away.

“He has time out of someone else’s eye to deal with people,” Johnson said. “And of course, those heads of corporations or states, similarly, are going to use the opportunity to stay away from any spotlight.”

The President’s Penchent for privacy on the link also means that a golfer trump acts wildly about how good it is. He claims to win dozens of club championships – the owners of all courses – including five this year.

Sports Journalist Rick Reley explained his 2019 Book Commander in Cheat: How Golf explained Trump, Trump’s championship claims write in such “over-the-top” that he loses all credibility.

He explained what he says that Trump is a deception, including taking his ball to better places in the course and taking several Muligan – a custom that allows a player to re -play a stroke with no punishment, after a mishit.

“He is a notorious deception,” Johnson said. “I once talked to someone who played a round of golf with him, who told me that he had taken six Muligan on the same hole.”

According to Mulvenni, who says that he never saw Trump cheating, the President can use Golf as a way to connect, but 18 holes with the President are not about business or government or politics.

“This is golf,” he said. “And when it seems obedient, golfers know what I mean. Trump was a golfing enthusiast long before being the President. And he will remain even after a long time.”