Donald Trump has claimed he won Bedminster’s Senior Club Championship with an impressive five-under-par score of 67 - eight shots better than Phil Mickelson took at the course earlier this month.
Mr Trump bragged about the win on Truth Social and even gave out the phone number of the course’s head professional if anyone wanted to confirm his victory.
“I am pleased to report, for those that care, that I just won the Senior Club Championship (must be over 50 years old!) at Bedminster (Trump National Golf Club), shooting a round of 67,” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
His score was significantly better than six-time major tournament winner Mickelson scored at the LIV Golf event on the same Bedminister course a few weeks ago.
Mr Trump acknowledged that people may have some reservations about his claim.
“Some people will think that sounds low, but there is no hanky/lanky,” he wrote.
“Many people watch, plus I am surrounded by Secret Service Agents. Not much you can do even if you wanted to, and I don’t. For some reason, I am just a good golfer/athlete – I have won many Club Championships, and it is always a great honor!”
Mr Trump was so keen to make sure that his score was believed that he later posted the phone number of Bedminster’s head golf professional, Mickey Gallagher, for people to call and ask for themselves.
The senior championship likely played on much shorter tees than the professionals with the course also being groomed and set up completely differently.
Mr Trump, 77, has repeatedly been accused of cheating at golf, including in the 2019 book by sportswriter Rick Reilly: Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.
“Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf,” Reilly wrote. “He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs. At Winged Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for him: ‘Pele.’”
In January, The Palm Beach Post reported that Mr Trump’s name was top of the leaderboard for the final round of the Senior Club Championship at Trump International West Palm Beach.
@NoLayingUp tirico flames trump on the way out pic.twitter.com/v871dVX9j9
— Crash Bandichris (@cyork_01) May 17, 2020
This was despite Mr Trump not playing in the first round of the competition and instead, reportedly saying that he had played a good round earlier in the week and using that score.
In 2016, boxer Oscar De La Hoya told the Associated Press that Mr Trump cheated against him twice in two holes.
“Yes, I caught him,” De La Hoya claimed. “It was unbelievable. But I guess it was his course, so it was his rules.”
Sports commentator Mike Tirico claimed that after hitting a good shot onto the green he was surprised to find his ball in a bunker, with caddies eventually admitting that it had been thrown in there by Mr Trump.
