Have to be honest … there were a few anxious moments. A Trump second term would have meant the further normalising of twisted morals and values that run completely against the best traditions of golf.
For four long years, the truth seemed to be malleable under a Trump-led world. Stone cold shanks and bad play … clear as day horrendous attitudes, especially against minorities and the less fortunate, were not penalised.
Hazard? OB? What OB? If the golf course developers were not so stingy, they would have bought more land and built wider fairways! It was always someone else’s fault. In hit after occasionally even fatal hit, these Trump emboldened hackers were given free drops and mulligans. No added strokes as you might think such criminal behaviour would deserve in places like Acheh for example. Nope. No penalty. Instead, the offending parties received tacit approval and were asked to stand back and stand ready for the next round.
The irony of course is that Trump is known as an avid golfer and a golf course developer. In fact, he had just arrived at one of his golf courses when he received the news that Joe Biden had won. You would think the gravity of the situation would demand his immediate attention. Didn’t he say he would fight all the way to the Supreme Court for recounts and the elimination of supposedly compromised ballots?
Instead, #45 went ahead and played a round, as if nothing had happened.
The danger is clear. The average person already assumes, in error, that golf is a game played by a snooty bunch of elitists who couldn’t care less if even Rome was burning. They’d tee up and fiddle on.
My hope is that this general misconception is not further ingrained by the feckless antics of people like Trump. It may already be too late. Madame Tussauds London chose to immortalise the absurdity of the moment by removing the presidential suit and tie, and replaced them with golf gear and posed the wax dummy alongside a bag of clubs.
Countless people and their children will now visit in person, or via VR on the net. They will flock to Madame Tussauds, one of London’s best known tourist attractions and come away thinking that well, golf is a game STILL played by a bunch of heartless elites. Not something that golf needs now, if ever.
No mulligan for Trump? I couldn’t agree more.
Drive long and prosper.
