Trump Claims to Have Won a Tourney at His Golf Club — Despite Missing Half of It

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Former President Donald Trump says he won a tournament at his golf club in Florida over the weekend — despite having missed half of it.

The former president made the claim on his Truth Social platform Sunday, asserting that he’d won the senior club championship at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm beach.

“A great honor,” Trump wrote. He added, “Competed against many fine golfers, and was hitting the ball long and straight. The reason that I announce this on fabulous TRUTH is that, in a very real way, it serves as a physical exam, only MUCH tougher. You need strength and stamina to WIN, & I have strength & stamina – most others don’t. You also need strength & stamina to GOVERN!”

But the event took place on Saturday and Sunday, and Trump missed the first round — as he was attending the funeral for Diamond of Diamond & Silk.

So how did he pull off the victory?

According to the Daily Mail, Trump used the score from a round he played on Thursday and counted it in place of the tournament’s first round on Saturday. The tournament used the Stableford scoring system, in which birdies count for three points, pars count for two, bogeys earn one point, and double bogeys and worse get nothing. In that Thursday round, Trump claimed to have earned 40 points — putting him five clear of the leader after the first day.

In the standard scoring system, Trump’s round would have translated to, at worst, a 68 — a score of four under on the par 72 track. That, of course, presumes the score is credible — which, based on much reporting over the years about the former president’s golf game and scorekeeping, is a very shaky assumption. Famed sportswriter Rick Reilly, who once wrote a book about Trump’s golf game, said that his scores are not to be taken at face value.

“He cheats like a mafia accountant,” Reilly told CNN in 2019. “He cheats crazy. He cheats whether you’re watching or not. He cheats whether you like it or not.”