The Presidents of the good ol’ US of A have always enjoyed a batter and clatter on the golf course.
Woodrow Wilson, for instance, didn’t take up the game until the age of 56 but, during his time in the Oval Office, he amassed upwards of 1200 rounds.
Funnily enough, that’s about the same number of felony counts the President-elect Donald Trump racked up. Or something like that?
Apparently, Trump’s rival in the race to the White House, Kamala Harris, would’ve been the first non-golfing President since Jimmy Carter in 1977. There’s a cornball gag in there somewhere about swing states.
As the wider world braces itself for the prospect of another Trump term, those inside the golf bubble mull over what impact he’ll have on the current impasse in the men’s professional game.
Trump, of course, thinks his impact would be immediate. But he would say that, wouldn’t he? Give it a few days, and he’ll be waxing lyrical about The Open coming back to Turnberry.
“I would say it would take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done,” he said earlier this week when asked about sorting out the prolonged merger talks involving the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund which bankrolls the breakaway LIV series.
These discussions have been dragging on since the Framework Agreement among the hitherto warring factions was sprung on a startled golf scene back in June 2023.
One of the major obstacles in the peace deal is the US Department of Justice’s threat to block it on the grounds that a merger would violate competition law.
The President, though, can exert considerable influence over said department. It may take longer than 15 minutes but there is a feeling that Trump, a supporter of the Saudis and all things LIV, would get things moving. Not quite Make America Great Again, more Make Agreement Go Ahead.
“Given the news with what’s happened in America, I think that (Trump’s win) clears the way a little bit,” suggested Rory McIlroy about the possibility of the Department of Justice being more amenable to a union.
As for Trump getting it done and dusted in double-quick time? “He might be able to,” added McIlroy, who was speaking ahead of the ABU Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links.
“He’s got Elon Musk, who I think is the smartest man in the world, beside him. We might be able to do something if we can get Musk involved, too.”
What an alliance that would be, eh?
“Obviously, Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia,” McIlroy continued. “He's got a great relationship with golf. He's a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows?
“But I think as the President of the United States again, he's probably got bigger things to focus on than golf.”
The focus for McIlroy this week is putting the tin lid on another Race to Dubai win. It would be his sixth order of merit triumph, equalling the half a dozen of Seve Ballesteros and putting him just two behind Colin Montgomerie’s record haul of eight.
“Trying to get to Monty's number or maybe surpassing it is definitely a goal in the future,” admitted the world No 3. “But, right now, I think I just have to focus on trying to get that sixth one and go from here.”
It should be a fairly routine task. While the official bumf about the penultimate event of the DP World Tour season states that as many as 36 players can technically be crowned European No 1, it would require McIlroy to finish dead last both in Abu Dhabi and at next week’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
That just isn’t going to happen. Then again, a lot of folk said that about Trump getting the keys to the big hoose again.
McIlroy hasn’t played competitively since the Dunhill Links Championship last month. He will re-emerge with a tweaked swing, having spent a few weeks in the solitary confinement of a studio working on his motion.
“It’s work I felt I needed to do,” he said. “I locked myself indoors in a swing studio and just hit balls into a blank screen or net and just focused on my swing and the movement of my body patterns.
“There’s still probably a way to go. But it will be nice to test it out in competition and see how it holds up.”
What were we saying about swing states again?
