Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Golf, Donald Trump
Chris Nee
Donald Trump doesn't cheat at golf or anything else.
The President of the United States of America is a terrific golfer according to the President of the United States of America, and long-standing accusations of questionable practices on the links have always been denied.
Back in 2004, writer Rick Reilly caddied for an array of America's rich and powerful for his book 'Who's Your Caddy?'
Trump, being a terrific golfer, was one of his interview subjects.
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"Golf is like bicycle shorts: It can reveal a lot about a guy," Reilly told the Washington Post several years after what must have been a harrowing experience.
"When it comes to cheating, [Trump is] an 11 on a scale of one to 10."
Trump denied Reilly's account, which included a story about the future leader of the free world calling a gimme on what "should have been a chip shot" and raking in his putts.
"I always thought he was a terrible writer," said Trump of Reilly, naturally, but the sports writer was far from his only accuser when it came to matters of the golf course.
The Washington Post also quoted Jonathan Carr, who spent two years as a caddy at Trump's golf club in New Jersey.
"Carr never saw Trump come close to bending the rules, although he said everyone who caddied there had heard of that reputation," wrote the Post's Ben Terris.
This is where the idea of plausible deniability comes in. Fans of The Simpsons when it was watchable will be familiar with the concept.
"The caddies would say, ‘If I get on his bag, I’m going to make sure he always has a good lie," Carr told the Washington Post.
Trump, the amateur record holder at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, enjoyed plenty of good lies, wrote Terris.
Barack Obama, who preceded Trump as President, was apparently as straight as a die on the golf course.
In 2013, a White House staffer revealed that Obama was no corner-cutter on the course.
"I’ve never seen him get to the point where he just picks [the ball] up," said Marvin Nicholson.
“I’ve seen him write a 10 down. I’ve seen him write an 11 down.”
Terris ended his story with a beautifully deft revelation from Reilly's extraordinary caddying project.
"The only other person that Reilly remembers cheating as much as Trump? None other than Bill Clinton."