Practice makes perfect, and when it comes to golf President Trump practices a lot — but all the effort in the world can’t compare to some good old-fashioned cheating.
Donald Trump ‘cheats like hell’ at golf, says LPGA golfer and friend Suzann Pettersen
“No matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it’s in the middle of the fairway when we get there.”
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
LPGA pro Suzann Pettersen is friends with the president, golfing with him many times over the years — but she told a Norwegian newspaper that Trump likes to play pretty loose with the rules on the course. And he gets a lot of help:
“He cheats like hell ... so I don’t quite know how he is in business. They say that if you cheat at golf, you cheat at business. I’m pretty sure he pays his caddie well, since no matter how far into the woods he hits the ball, it’s in the middle of the fairway when we get there.”
Trump claims 19 club championships, all at courses he owns, and he has boasted about the difficulty in winning his hard-earned titles. But Pettersen isn’t buying it. She says the president routinely skips his final putt so it won’t count on his scorecard:
“Yes, yes, that happens all the time. He always says he is the world’s best putter. But in all the times I’ve played him, he’s never come close to breaking 80.”
Pettersen remains a fan of the president and still considers him a friend — but when it comes to golf she’s trying to set the record straight:
“What’s strange is that every time I talk to him he says he just golfed a 69, or that he set a new course record or won a club championship some place. I just laugh.”
So based on this account, we can surmise that the president on the golf course is basically Gene Hackman in Welcome to Mooseport:
Update: Petterson is saying her words were twisted in the interview.
