President Trump is back in the winner's circle—again. For the reported 43rd time, the 80-year-old claimed a club championship at his Bedminster, New Jersey course, shooting a final-round 70 to take both the Senior and Super Senior divisions. Video of the trophy presentation quickly made the rounds, but not everyone is buying the hype.
Skeptics were quick to point out that in his only verified competitive start—the 2006 American Century Championship—Trump finished 62nd out of 80 celebrities, a whopping 52 over par. Critics on social media called the latest win "embarrassing" and questioned the legitimacy of a man who has built a brand on, well, winning.
Enter Rick Reilly. The former ESPN star and longtime sportswriter has spent years investigating Trump's golf game, and he's not shy about sharing what he's found. In his book Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, Reilly pulls back the curtain on a pattern of behavior that he says goes far beyond the occasional mulligan.
Cheating: It's Not Just a Hobby
Reilly's critique is blunt. "You're mostly laughing," he writes, "but at times you're crying—how did this happen? As a golfer he really offends me. Cheating? Hate that. Driving carts on greens? Hate that. Kicking your ball so often the caddies call you Pelé? I so hate that."
He adds: "I love golf and he has set the game back 30 years. Just when it was becoming cool with Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler we get this fat bozo cheating his ass off."
First-Hand Encounters
Reilly says he witnessed the behavior himself. Their first meeting came at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am in the late 1980s, when Trump approached him with a familiar pitch. "It's Rick Reilly, the greatest sportswriter in the world," Trump said, with then-wife Marla Maples pulling a column from her purse as proof of his fandom.
They eventually played a round together, and Reilly recalls a moment that still sticks with him: "That was the day he took the only gimme chip I've ever seen. A chip is a gimme? Trump's pretty good off the tee but he chips like Edward Scissorhands. He'll cheat you on the course and then buy you lunch."
Club Titles Under Scrutiny
When asked about the club championship wins, Reilly was dismissive. "He even said: 'This is against the best players in the club. No strokes given.' What? I played with you. You're a 10-handicapper at best. There's no way you're winning a club championship."
He went on to explain that many of these titles are senior divisions for players over 60 or 70. "That's a nice honour but it's not within a par 5 of beating the club's best players. Lots of guys said he wasn't even in town when some championships were decided. He claimed to have won a tournament in New Jersey when he was actually in Philly."
Reilly's father, a Reagan Republican, would have been appalled. "My dad would flip over three times in his grave," he said.
The controversy echoes questions about the legitimacy of that 70 and whether the win should count at all. Some have noted the crowd's lukewarm reaction to the trophy presentation, while supporters have rallied behind the score.
But for Reilly, the pattern is clear. "Most of all I hate how stupid he's making my country look," he writes. "I hate what he's doing to my planet. I hate what he's doing to kids at the border."
Trump, meanwhile, continues to tout his golf prowess, but as Reilly's book makes clear, the proof may be in the pudding—or in this case, the scorecard.
