First Tiger Woods, then Ernie Els and now Rory McIlroy. It can be a tough quandary for those invited to play a round of golf with President Donald Trump. Tiger played a foursomes with the then president-elect before Christmas, mostly avoiding criticism for their golfing sortie. Not so Els and McIlroy.
The South African dropped out of the Pebble Beach Pro-Am with a neck injury then was caught playing over the weekend with Trump and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. The following weekend at the Genesis Open, Els admitted, “A lot of my friends were not for him. They kind of needled me a a little bit, saying I was a suck-up. I just said, ‘Go eff yourself. I played with the president and you haven’t.’ You can’t please everyone.” Els added that he played out of respect for the office. “When the president calls, you don’t say no.”
Meanwhile, the Northern Irishman received a call from the White House last Saturday asking if he would be good to play on Sunday. He had planned to rest his rib, which he injured in the South African Open in January, but his primary residence is in Jupiter (Florida), around half an hour's drive from Trump International, and he agreed.
Fierce criticism then rained down on him from many different sources. Among the mildest came from Nathan Murphy, a soccer commentator and broadcaster on Irish radio station Newstalk, who said, “Pretty shocked that Rory agreed to play with Trump. He's injured, he had a perfect excuse to dodge it. Massive error of judgement.”
After the match, McIlroy said Trump “probably shot around 80”, adding, 'He's a decent player for a guy in his 70s.”
Trump himself attracted scathing criticism for his “hypocrisy”. The Huffington Post reminded readers that Trump had repeatedly crticised his predecesor Barack Obama for playing golf too often, in one Tweet protesting, “Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter.”
And speaking to reporters in February last year… “I just want to stay in [the] White House [and] work my ass off.” Later in November, Trump acknowledged that he would play golf as president but said he would “always play with leaders of countries and people who can help us”.
In a bizarre twist on aides’ reported efforts to hide Trump’s golfing outings – he reportedly visited his two golf courses near his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach and Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter, six times in his first month in office – an AP journalist posted a picture of windows covered with black plastic in a room in which administration officials made her wait while Trump played golf at Jupiter.
