15 minutes to ‘Make Golf Great Again’: What Donald Trump’s re-election means for golf

Has golf's future just become even brighter after Donald Trump's election win?

As Americans prepare for the return of golf-obsessed President Donald Trump to The White House, TG Columnist Matt Cooper explores what a second term means for the game and the stalling vision of ‘unlocking golf’s worldwide potential’.

There’s absolutely no doubt that Donald Trump’s visit to Turnberry during the 2015 Women’s Open was utterly remarkable. So bizarre, in fact, that it resembled a cheese dream. It also provided a vivid glimpse of what was to come, not just for golf but for the United States of America.

That three-day trip, during which he promoted his desire to be the Republican candidate for the 2016 election, had it all: boastfulness and bluster, chaos and inconsistency, bullishness and bullet-proof self-assurance. Amid an international media frenzy, the journalists who were only there for the golf attempted to look worldly-wise but the truth was that we were horribly out of our depth.

Trump was issuing a declaration of intent towards the establishment and golf’s top dogs took note – Turnberry has been blackballed by the R&A ever since and the quest for the Claret Jug will never be overshadowed as that Women’s Open was – but his assault on Washington’s old guard has been more profound, more sustained and ultimately more effective. Moreover, with his re-election golf may not find it so simple to overlook him as the sport did during his first presidency.

Before his first inauguration, Trump’s involvement with golf was significant. He was the owner of a significant number of golf courses and resorts around the world, ones that often hosted the major tours. During the decade prior to running for President, his quest to open Trump International Golf Links Aberdeen had become overtly political, eventually requiring the machinations of Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of Scotland, to push it through various government hoops and red tape.

That Trump overcame these and so many other hurdles to complete that project was an indication of his dogged persistence and ruthless desire, and yet in many ways, his influence in golf diminished rather than expanded when he first moved into The White House. This first became apparent at the start of his election year when the PGA Tour announced that it was relocating a World Golf Championship event from Trump National Doral in Florida to Chapultepec Country Club in Mexico City. A lack of sponsorship was the official reason, but many suspected Trump’s criticism of Mexicans, something that had been so central to his campaigning, was in some way involved. “I hope they have kidnap insurance,” a petulant Trump snarled on Fox News in response to the snub.

Flip it forward eight years, and golf’s reaction to the 78-year-old’s re-election has felt notably different from the first time, not least because while one of the game’s superstars celebrated with him, another was introducing his name to the most contentious conversation in the sport.

In part, this was because Trump prompted his involvement by saying on the Sirius XM podcast Let’s Go! at the start of election week, of the ongoing attempts to create a union between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF): “I do think we should have one tour (and) I think it’ll come together. I would say it would take me the better part of 15 minutes to get that deal done.”

Asked about Trump’s typically confident words the morning after the result at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Rory McIlroy said: “He might be able to (get it done). 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. Yeah, I think from the outside looking in, it’s probably a little less complicated than it actually is. But obviously Trump has a great relationship with Saudi Arabia. He’s got a great relationship with golf. He’s a lover of golf. So, maybe. Who knows?”

The Northern Irishman did add, “I think as the President of the United States again, he’s probably got bigger things to focus on than golf,” but his initial words were out there and had not so much fanned the flames as spread them like high wind on a wildfire.

LIV Golf had actually appeared to have moved away from Trump’s influence, at the very least in literal terms. Trump National Golf Club Bedminster and Trump National Doral had hosted events in both the inaugural 2022 season and also 2023, but only Doral was involved in 2024 and it was dropped for the season-ending team championship.

Suddenly, however, the chitter chatter is all about him playing peacekeeper in golf’s civil war, a role that his friend Bryson DeChambeau would surely welcome. The two-time major champion even made a stage appearance during Trump’s victory speech. “We have to protect our super geniuses,” the President-elect told the audience. “We have up here today the US Open champion. He’s fantastic. Hits the ball a little longer than me, just a little bit. Bryson DeChambeau is up here somewhere.” He wasn’t, but he soon was.

The pair’s friendship goes way back and when the incumbent President, Joe Biden, and Trump broke away from discussion about the future of the nation to squabble about their respective golf games in the middle of the first televised presidential debate in June, DeChambeau tweeted: “Let’s settle this whole handicap debate, I’ll host the golf match on my YouTube.” That never happened. Instead, DeChambeau launched a 56-minute YouTube video entitled ‘Can I Break 50 With President Donald Trump?’ which shows the pair goofing about and bantering with one another. To date, it has had over 12 million views.

In his book ‘Commander in Cheat’ the veteran golf writer Rick Reilly listed astounding examples of Trump’s laxity regarding the rules of the game and, while many of his supporters dispute the evidence, there are many friends and supporters of his who freely admit he takes the law into his own hands with a club in hand.

But what DeChambeau’s video reiterated is: a) just what chutzpah Trump possesses and: b) his ability to transfer this to the course. He is indisputably confident in his long game, perhaps less so about his short game and putting, but he doesn’t just cope, he actually thrives when playing in front of cameras alongside one of the sport’s finest players. Most would be intimidated, but not Trump. And there seems no reason why this bromance should cool off soon.

Golf impacted the Presidential race in other ways, most notably when Trump teed it up in Palm Beach, Florida with his friend and donor Steve Witkof in September. As the pair played the fifth hole at Trump International a Secret Services agent spied a gunman hiding in the bushes on the sixth and fired at him. The gunman fled the scene, the incident was treated as the second assassination attempt on Trump (the first in July was a near miss that caused damage to his ear), and the trial will take place next year.

The other ugly instance was self-inflicted when Trump introduced the great Arnold Palmer to his pre-election spiel. Speaking to supporters in Palmer’s hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Trump’s admiration of one of golf’s greatest characters took a most unexpected turn. “This is a guy that was all man,” he said. “This man was strong and tough, and … when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable.’”

Palmer’s daughter Peg Palmer Wears was not impressed, telling ABC News: “Hackneyed anecdotes from the locker room … seem disrespectful and inappropriate to me.” She added that attendees at the rallies, “deserve substance about plans (he) has as a candidate.”

What of Trump’s undoubted love of playing the game? A frequent critic of the time his predecessor Barack Obama spent on the course, he said while on the campaign trail in 2016: “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to play golf.” Obama had, indeed, played a lot in his two terms. 306 rounds according to Golf Digest. Given that Trump was estimated to have played 261 rounds in his first term, however, he’s on track to demolish that mark by the end of his own second term. 

The bigger questions for golf regard exactly what impact Trump might have on the sport in the next four years.

Will a second term – and a new CEO – mean that the R&A will look more kindly on Trump’s great Scottish treasure Turnberry? Will it host another Open? Or will fears of toxicity at the sport’s oldest championship maintain the status quo?

Notions that he might step into the PGA Tour and LIV discussions might also come to nothing because he really will have much to distract him in the next six months.

His venture in Aberdeen remains in the public eye with the announcement last month that Trump International Golf Links Aberdeen will open a second course in the summer of 2025. As with the first course, it is controversial. Sarah Malone, executive vice president of Trump International Scotland, sounded a lot like her boss himself when saying: “This course is unlike any other links course ever built and is exceeding every expectation. A truly remarkable, world-class team of architects, engineers, environmental scientists, and industry specialists have been working tirelessly in the background – etching out every square inch of this phenomenal piece of land to create one of the great wonders in the world of golf.”

In response the Scottish Green Party described Trump as a climate-change denier with a “long history of lies and dodgy business dealings” and its North East MSP Maggie Chapman added: “Another Trump vanity project is the last thing we need.”

Ultimately, drawing conclusions about Donald Trump and golf is about as straightforward as accurately predicting the exit polls. He is a golfer like no other (professional golfers tend to loathe pro-am business partners who cheat rather than chuckle in complicity with them). He is a golf developer like no other (Trump International Scotland reported a loss for the 11th consecutive year in 2023; it is now over $20 million in deficit). And a politician like no other (who else would have the audacity and self-confidence to even seek re-election never mind secure it?!).

That he believes he can unite the PGA Tour and PIF in 15 minutes is very far from being as daft as it sounds because his methods are deliberately off-the-cuff and uninterested in convention. That outrageous week in Turnberry nine years ago proved that in all manner of astonishing ways and very few in golf or politics took note.

He will change the United States in the next four years – and he may change golf, too.

• I played a round of golf with President Donald Trump
• Does Donald Trump cheat at golf?

About the author

Matt Cooper
Contributing Writer

Matt Cooper has been a golf journalist for 15 years. He’s worked for, among others, Golf365, SkySports, ESPN, NBC, Sporting Life, Open.com and the Guardian. He specializes in feature writing, reporting and tournament analysis.

He’s traveled widely in that time, covering golf from Kazakhstan to South Korea via Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

More straightforwardly, he’s also covered numerous Majors, Ryder Cups and Solheim Cups.

Follow Matt on Twitter.