Money talks. In golf, it talks loudly, actually shouts on most occasions, which is probably why Donald J Trump loves being part of the game so much.
“I’ve been great for golf. I came in when everyone was running away,” boasts the loquacious property tycoon.
The way some lined up behind him, suspending any critical faculties they might have in the process, shows that some do agree with his inflated assessment of his worth to the game.
The truth is, however, that Trump needed golf a whole lot more than golf needs him. Which is why he should be in serious strife with the game after his appalling comments last week.
While Trump is loquacious, he’s far from articulate. His statement on Mexicans importing “drug smugglers, crime and rapists” to the USA would be awful from the mouth of a bar room racist let alone someone who seeks to be the leader of the free world, if his fledgling presidential ‘campaign’ is anything other than another publicity stunt.
The result of his statement was immediate. Univision, the biggest Spanish language broadcaster in the US, axed all connection with Trump, while TV network NBC quickly followed suit.
Yet in his stubborn refusal to admit that anything that comes out of his ever-open mouth might be wrong, he dug the pit further by suggesting that golf’s governing bodies actually agreed with his sentiments.
In the first example of backbone showed by the authorities in some time, the four the PGA Tour, PGA of America, USGA and LPGA released a joint statement disabusing Trump of his notion that they in any way agreed with him.
In addition, they also reiterated their commitment to inclusivity, a pole apart from Trump’s oft-stated belief that golf should be elitist and corralled only for those wealthy enough to afford to play his courses.
None of the golf bodies have so far suggested they might sever all ties with Trump. The PGA Tour go to his Doral course every year for the Cadillac Championship and, although the car company is reportedly unhappy, there’s no move yet.
Three top PGA of America tournaments, including the PGA Championship itself of 2022, are set for Trump courses, as is the 2017 US Women’s Open. Most pertinently, the Ricoh Women’s British Open in just three weeks is to be played at Turnberry, which Trump bought last year.
The contracts for this event were signed and sealed some time ago, even before Trump bought the premises cut-price from the former owners.
It’s clearly impossible to pull out of it now, but the LPGA and the LGU’s attitude to him at the end of this month will be crucial. To alienate in any way the Latin audience Lorena Ochoa, one of the greatest of all LPGA champions, is proudly Mexican could be disastrous for them.
Looking closer to home, we have Trump’s curious relationship with the R&A. He seems assured that the Open will return to Turnberry at some point, and his much trumpeted “improvements” to the Ailsa course have been made with the championship in mind, using one of the R&A’s preferred architects.
Yet there’s no vacancy on the rota until 2021, and there’s been no public promise from the R&A, other than the occasional assurance that no course has been removed from the rota.
Of course they said that when Turnberry didn’t get the Open for 15 years between 1994 and 2009. There seems to be plenty of wiggle room for the R&A to leave Trump hanging in the wind, and they certainly don’t need his money.
But is that the case with the European Tour or the PGA here? Sandy Jones of the PGA has very publicly aligned himself with Trump some would say obsequiously on occasion.
The long-time chief executive is not one for backing down generally, so his reaction will be interesting.
The Tour’s position is even more acute, especially after Trump’s people leaking that three out of four Scottish Opens from 2017 might go to his course at Menie.
Trump claimed they wanted it to go there permanently at complete odds with the stated policy of taking the event around the country.
The Tour have remained silent on that, and so far not confirmed it’s even going to Menie. But money is crucial to them, so can they afford to dismiss Trump’s largesse or tolerate his increasingly offensive bluster and cope with the collateral damage it will inevitably bring?
THE INJURY IS THE PRICE FOR RORY BEING RORY
A major part of the appeal of Rory McIlroy is that he is, by and large, exactly as he appears.
“Is he as nice a lad as he seems?” is the question I’m asked about Rory more than any other, much more than any discussion of his unquestionable brilliance at golf.
My answer, in my experience which dates back to when he was 16 years old, is yes, he is. And a huge part of this is that he does not lock himself in a bubble.
Despite becoming a world figure his close friends from school are still hisclose friends, and as we’ve all discovered in the last 24 hours, like most lads their age they like a kickabout now and then.
It’s hugely disappointing Rory will miss St Andrews, and the now useless betting slip I’m clutching has a real poignancy. The Old Course, where he is supremely comfortable these days, was probably his for the taking.
The potential duel between him and Jordan Spieth is also denied us. We’re all cursing the fates, and some even will rage that a major sporting figure exposed himself to potential injury in this way just days before his biggest championship of the year.
But they’re completely wrong.
There will be other Opens, and plenty at St Andrews, for him. I’d have loved him to have built his legend by retaining the Jug on the Old Course, but I’d much rather he feels able to play fives with his mates when his schedule allows.
It’s just Rory being Rory. The real tragedy would be for him to change.