If there are two things we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he will never back down from an argument and he will never, ever admit when he’s wrong. Trump’s usual ploy when it comes to the media is to berate them, belittle them and accuse them of being bad at their jobs.
Enter Rick Reilly.
The former Sports Illustrated scribe and ESPN talking head once wrote a golf book called “Who’s Your Caddy,” writing about the experience carrying the bag for some of the world’s best golfers, and a few rich and famous weekend hacks. (Guess which category Reilly put Trump in there?)
In a never-ending effort to keep Trump in the news cycle, Ben Terris of the Washington Post wrote a fun article this week asking “does Donald Trump cheat at golf” penning the Style section’s piece as “A Washington Post investigation,” which given all that Trump says and does on the campaign trail, is one of the better tongue-and-cheek headlines in a while.
This, from the story, is Reilly’s recollection of his time golfing with Trump:
Reilly told The Washington Post about an afternoon when Trump wrote down scores he didn’t actually achieve on his scorecard, conceded putts to himself by raking the ball into the hole with his putter rather than striking it properly (“He rakes like my gardener!”), and even called a gimme — something a player might claim for a two-foot putt — on what should have been a chip shot.
“He took the world’s first gimme chip-in,” Reilly said.
This anecdote was one of several similar stories in the piece about Trump’s cheating on the links. Alice Cooper suggested Trump was the biggest cheat he ever played with. Former caddies said they’d consistently fluff his lies because his reputation preceded him. Former Sports Illustrated managing editor Mark Mulvoy recalled a story where he outed Trump as a cheater during a round of play, but was told by the billionaire he only cheats to keep up with his cheating friends.
While Trump denies that story, telling the Post, “I don’t even know who he is,” with regard to Mulvoy, the real estate mogul turned GOP candidate certainly remembers who Reilly is. He’s not a fan.
Trump disputes Reilly’s entire story as well: “I always thought he was a terrible writer,” he said. “I absolutely killed him, and he wrote very inaccurately. I would say that he’s a very dishonest writer. . . . I never took a gimme chip shot. . . . I don’t do gimme chip shots. If I asked his approval, that’s not cheating, number one. Number two, I never took one.”
I wish I were a fly on the golf cart for that conversation.
“Donald, you’re still away.”
“What do you think this is, three, maybe four?”
“Yards, yes, probably.”
“Okay. Good-good, then?”
“Whatever you say, Donald. You own the course. I’m just writing a book here.”
“Great. That’s another eagle for me, double bogey for you. I gave you two of my strokes if you don’t mind. By the way you are a terrible writer. I plan to tell everyone how dishonest you are if you ever talk about this.”
The Post story does say that Reilly made it clear he enjoyed his time on the course with Trump. So, too, did Tony Kornheiser, who played with Trump in 2008 and told the Post Trump, “couldn’t have been more gracious or more fun.”
Trump genuinely looks like he’d be a fun guy to play a round of golf with, driving in a cart made of solid gold and telling rakes “you’re fired” after he can’t get out of a bunker in two shots. After the round, as Reilly pointed out was this case with his experience, Trump would surely pick up the tab before telling everyone at the greenside restaurant named after himself that he shot his age, when he really stopped counting strokes after the 12th hole.
Trump is fascinating in that he is so brazen and cocksure, if you dare to call him out on something, you’re either a liar, bad at your job, or both. If Trump says that loud enough, people will start to believe him. Eventually whatever he says about your general awfulness (or about his own greatness) will probably be true, even if it never was.
In his world, even when talking about Rick Reilly’s recollection of a round of golf more than ten years ago, the truth is only whatever makes Trump look good. It’s an amazing way to go through life, and given the guy could win an election in a little over a year that would actually make this “his” world, I’d say it’s worked out for him so far in life.
As exposés go, this golf story is purposefully benign, but hearing of his questionable credentials on the golf course makes me wonder if Trump ever played a round of golf with Kim Jong-Il?
The scores would have been legendary. The insults from Trump… even better.
