Trump and golf – bright balls and deals for 18 holes

Mick Malvani thought he had beaten Donald Trump. The President and his Chief of Staff of the White House in 2019 played the Golf at the Trump’s Bedminsster club, and Mulvani rose with one blow with three holes.

“I hit him on the shoulder and joked with him:” I’m you old today, “Malvani said.” He looked at me, smiled half, held half and laughed. “

The president completed two of the following three holes and two smashed Malvan.

Mulvani, who worked for three years at the Trump’s White House in the first term, says he played golf or in the group at once, the president has never beat the man 21 years older. “Just breaking the soul” is how he described it.

Golf was a popular occupation for many modern US presidents, but no one had the same relationship with sports as Trump, Who is in Scotland this weekend To open a new Trump course near Bal Red in Aberdenshire.

For presidents such as Barack Obama and George Sh Bush, Golf seemed to be a deviation from the office load. For the current president, however, Golf is a business enterprise, the ability of the network and – as Malvani points out – a fierce competitive enterprise. According to him, on the fairway and greenery, the president focuses on games and has little tolerance for bad shots and slow games.

“In fact, if you are slow,” Mulvani said, “you’re not going to invite back and you can stay behind the course.

British golf journalist Kevin Brown survived this first -hand when he played with Trump in his Bal Rogue in 2012.

“He was more concentrated, head down, moving in front,” Brown said. “In most cases, he just played his own game and obviously thought about the things he had to do.”

However, after the round, Brown talked to Trump for almost an hour about golf. He said the fascination with the future president was obvious.

“He’s nut with golf,” he said. “He knew the background and the story of the game. It was impressive.”

Trump, real estate developer, turned into a politician, played golf since college and bought his first property in golf, the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, in 1999. Currently, Golf Trump has 11 courses in the US and three in the UK, manages several others and plans new resorts in Oman, Indonesia, Vietnam and Qatar.

Golf Clubs-It is a revered possession for Trump- and not always generate profit. According to applications with the British government, in 2023 Balmed Trump lost $ 1.83 million (£ 1.35 million)-the 11th year, which had a shortage. Turnberry, on the other hand, reported about $ 5 million.

Trump sometimes collided with local authorities on the use of land and sought to restrict the construction of wind turbines off the Bal Rogue.

While his courses in the United States held major professional tournaments, he long wanted Turnberry, which he will visit this weekend to become the place of the future open championship of the British Open Championship. The historical course held four prestigious competitions, but no one since Trump acquired real estate in 2014.

According to Brown, Trump is attracted to high-profile golf properties because of the prestige they provide.

“He just likes the quality and ancestry,” he said. “It is about attracting the right people – ie dirty rich businessmen with pretty deep pockets.”

For example, one round of golf in Tunkberry costs about $ 1,350.

Golf has long been the evasion that the elite used, where wealthy and powerful could lead business and create connections in exclusive – and until recently, in many cases, exclusively white and men – the environment.

For Trump’s businessman, it was the way to what connections are useful for creating his real estate empire. He suggested that he contact US politicians and foreign leaders – even when he promised in 2016, he “did not have time to play golf” when he was voted in the White House if he was.

At the beginning of his first presidential term, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Ein gave Trump a gold golf club. Later, they played five rounds – slamming a friendship that lasted until it was both killed in 2022.

Regular Golf Trump partners included close political allies, such as South Carolina Lindsey Graham Senator, and Republicans with whom he sought to establish new ties, such as the 2016 President Rand Paul with Kentucky.

“He’s a little better in golf than I, however, but we had a good time,” Paul said after the 2017 tournament with the president, adding that they focused on golf, “but also discussed Trump’s tax policy.

In March this year, Trump Golf with President of Finnish Alexander Stubub in West -Palm Bich, Affairs in Trump’s club tournament said two people won. Later, Stubb said that they talked about the war in Ukraine, Russia and global security.

“It is quite rare in the history of Finnish that the Finnish president spent so much time with the US president, either physically or by phone or messages,” said Stubba Canadian TV company CBC News.

This is the kind of access and influence with Trump’s desired prize for those seeking the presidential audience.

“Everyone who is difficult to deal with Donald quickly realizes that everything is transactional about it,” said Professor David Kay Johnstain of Rochester Technology, who covered Trump as a reporter for decades and wrote three books about man.

“If you are the head of the company, or the nation’s head, you either try and minimize any promising damage that it can cause you by lubricating it or the size of it if you are not sure.”

Even when they returned to the White House, foreign leaders tried to launch golf into a friendly reception. When South Africa’s President Kirill Ramaphos visited the oval office in May, he gave the President the illustrated South African golf book and included golfs Elsie Els and Retieph in his national delegation.

However it didn’t really help when the meeting went Extended confrontation compared to the confiscation policy of South Africa.

While this drama was played in front of the gathered press and live television cameras, Trump can see the benefits of his more closed golf trips, as it gives him the opportunity for meetings that have been well removed from the prying eyes of journalists.

Reporters accompany Trump on all his public movements, but when the president is on the golf area, they hold well.

“He has time from anyone else’s eyes to fight people,” said Johnston. “And, of course, these leaders of corporations or states, similarly, will use the opportunity to be away from any attention.”

The president’s sympathy to the links on the links also means that there is wildly contradictory reports on how good Gololist Trump actually is. He boasts to win dozens of club championships – all in the courses that belong to him – including only five this year.

Sports journalist Rick Ryli in his 2019 book in Cheat: How Golf explains Trump, writes that Trump’s claims are so “over” that he loses all his authority.

He tells in detail that, he said, it is Trump’s tendency to deceive, including moving the ball to the best places on the course and taking multiple miles – the custom in which the player is allowed to repeat a stroke without a penalty, after Mishitus.

“He is sad,” said Johnston. “I talked to someone who played with him golf who told me he took six Maligans per holy.”

According to Mulvan, who says he has never seen Trump cheat on, the president can use golf as a way of connecting, but 18 holes with the president are not about business, government or politics.

“It’s golf,” he said. “Although it sounds stupid, golvists know what I mean. Trump was a golf lover long before he was president. And he will also be long.”