Donald Trump loves golf. He plays it a lot. In fact, there are a good number of reporters and government watchdogs that keep track of just how much golf he plays compared to the work he actually does as president.
President Trump has arrived at the Trump Intl Gold Club. This is his 223rd day spent at a Trump property and his 172nd day spent at a Trump property golf course since becoming President.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) March 9, 2019
According to TrumpGolfCount.com, he played at his Palm Beach golf club 20 times in 2018, making 67 trips to his various golf properties over the course of the year. But one thing he did not do is win his club’s championship. He still has a plaque that says otherwise, though.
Golf.com reported on Monday that Trump’s locker at his Palm Beach club indicates that he won the course championship in 2018. But, well, he did not compete in that tournament.
Originally, a man named Ted Virtue, the 58-year-old CEO of a New York investment firm called MidOcean Partners, had the 2018 club championship title all to himself.
Virtue, a member of Winged Foot and Westchester Country Club in New York and Lost Tree and Trump International in South Florida, won a series of matches en route to his title. He played football and basketball at Middlebury College in Vermont in the early 1980s and his golf is more athletic than poetic. His index is listed as 3.3 and his 20 most recent scores, all from 2018 and this year, range from 73 to 83. Trump has posted only two scores since 2016.
After Virtue won the championship, Trump ran into him at the club, according to multiple sources who recounted the story. Having some fun with him, Trump said something like, “The only reason you won is because I couldn’t play.” The president cited the demands of his job, although he was able to make 20 visits to the club in 2018, according to trumpgolfcount.com. Trump then proposed a nine-hole challenge match to Virtue, winner-takes-the-title.
As Michael Bamberger points out in the Golf.com piece, there wasn’t much incentive in accepting Trump’s offer for Virtue, but it’s a request coming from the president of the United States and also the guy that owns the golf club you’re playing at. So of course he accepted, and of course he lost. Trump then said the two could split the title he never actually won.
“This isn’t fair — we’ll be co-champions,” Trump reportedly said.
But as Golf.com points out, the plaque celebrating Trump’s titles has no mention of a co-anything in the plaque. You can see the plaque in the tweet below.
-man wins golf tournament at Trump club
-Trump, as president but at his own club, challenges man to 9-hole golf-off, which he wins
-Trump claims "co-championship"
-Trump has special plaque made claiming championship for himselfhttps://t.co/oZb8QrmEyi— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 11, 2019
In most cases it feels like this doesn’t need to be said, but that’s not how golf works. Or any sport, really. You can’t go up to Tiger Woods, challenge him to a head-to-head showdown and retroactively win the 1997 Masters. This is not a wrestling belt that changes hands if you cash in a metal briefcase. But Trump does have a fuzzy understanding of the truth, and he certainly has an uneven relationship to winning. After all, there’s an entire book out there detailing how he cheats at golf.
Anyway, congratulations to co-champion Donald Trump on another big win.
