Donald Trump has admitted to throwing people out of his golf clubs for breaking his strictest rule on the course.
Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, is a keen golfer and the owner of 12 different courses in America - including his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
That club, which Trump has referred to as the 'Southern White House', sees membership cost a whopping $1 million after a monumental fee hike last year and members include a host of household names.
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The 78-year-old's golf exploits, which have seen him come against a raft of professional players, are set to cost US taxpayers even more money than during his first term.
He has faced frequent accusations of cheating when playing - particularly after announcing he won a tournament where he missed a day of action due to attending a funeral.
But Trump has a major bugbear on the golf course and feels so strongly about it that he has given players the boot because of it.
In an detailed piece for Today's Golfer, Trump went into detail about how much he hates slowness during golf.
Trump admits to throwing people out
"Slow play is a very big problem, and sometimes you have to get nasty with people," he admitted.
"I’ve actually thrown people out of my clubs because of slow play. They’re good people but they just don’t know what you’re talking about when slow play is brought to their attention, so I had to tell them they could no longer play.
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"The thing is though, that person can destroy an entire day of golf day for 144 people because if you have one slow group it doesn’t affect just the people behind them, it affects every group. Slow play is a disaster.
"I always say four hours for a round of golf is sufficient though I’ve played in 2.5hrs with nobody in front of me. Mind you, playing with good golfers generally helps a lot. Don’t forget, if golfers shoot a 70 against a 100 that’s a 30 shots difference and that’s a lot of time. Playing the match play format would help but then again a lot of people want to know what they shoot at the end of the round."
NBA legend Michael Jordan, another golf addict, had his course designed so that it suited his game and played to his strengths.
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But Trump also made adjustments to his courses - coughing up to increase gaps between tee times so that play can be a lot quicker.
He added: "I’ll tell you what I’ve done at some of my courses – and it’s cost money to do it – but I’ve increased the gaps between tee times from nine to 11mins and, believe it or not, that two minutes gap has made a huge difference in waiting around and generally speeding up play.
"But there are people who are slow no matter what you do and you’re only as good as the weakest link in golf. It’s very important you don’t have a slow group because one slow group makes it slow going for the rest. Furthermore, when a golf course gets rated as a ‘slow course’ it destroys the course – I know courses which have gone out of business because they have a reputation as being a slow course."
Trump's golf level is believed to be pretty high, with John Nieporte, who played two events on the PGA tour in 2017 and 2018, raving about his abilities while recalling an impressive feat he witnessed.
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"At our club championship in March, I watched President Trump hit a perfect 210-yard four iron to within 10 feet of the hole," Nieporte, the head golf pro at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, said at the Republican National Convention in July 2024.
"He needed to sink that putt to win. Do you think he sunk it? You better believe he sunk that putt."
Topics: Golf
Josh Lawless