Donald Trump on Monday claimed in a lengthy statement that he made a rare golf shot while playing with pros at his club in West Palm Beach on Saturday.
“Many people are asking, so I’ll give it to you now, it is 100 per cent true,” the 45th president of the United States said.
Tim Swain, a Republican running for Senate in South Carolina, posted a photo and tweeted: “Trump just made a hole-in-one!”
The photo showed Mr Trump celebrating with pro golfers Ernie Els, Gene Sauers, Ken Duke and Mike Goodes.
However, there is no video of the shot in question. Mr Trump’s communications director Taylor Budowich posted a video on Twitter on Monday of the former president picking up the ball at the green.
Trump can be seen pointing at the ball in the hole and saying: “Look, it’s there. Let’s get a picture, you don’t see that often.”
After social media users mocked the former president for bragging, he issued a statement claiming that he had indeed made a hole-in-one – a shot that enters the hole from the tee with no intervening shots – at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida.
It was “the most Donald Trump statement ever”, saidThe Washington Post.
“I hit a 5-iron, which sailed magnificently into a rather strong wind, with approximately 5 feet of cut, whereupon it bounced twice and then went clank, into the hole,” Mr Trump said in his official statement.
“While playing with the legendary golfer, Ernie Els, winner of four Majors and approximately 72 other tournaments throughout the world, Gene Sauers, winner of the Senior US Open, Ken Duke, and Mike Goodes, both excellent tour players, I made a hole-in-one,” he said.
He went on to elaborate: “These great tour players noticed it before I did because their eyes are slightly better, but on that one hole only, their swings weren’t.”
“Anyway, there’s a lot of chatter about it, quite exciting, and people everywhere seem to be asking for the facts. Playing with that group of wonderful, talented players was a lot of fun,” Mr Trump said.
Trying to make a joke, the former president added: “I won’t tell you who won because I am a very modest individual, and you will then say I was bragging—and I don’t like people who brag!”
On social media, meanwhile, he was mocked for “exaggerating” his golf prowess.
One wrote: “If you can find nothing else to be thankful for tonight, read this [Trump’s statement] and appreciate #DonaldJTrump is no longer president.”
Another user, Ron Filipkowski wrote: “They posted video of Trump’s ‘hole-in-one’ at his own golf tournament this weekend (that he ‘won’). Curiously, we don’t get to see the shot.”
Social media was also abuzz with jokes about the former president’s “so-called” humility.
“Donald Trump is claiming to have made a hole in one while golfing today. He plans to release the video in 2 weeks, along with his tax returns and healthcare plan,” one user said.
He has been accused of cheating at golf before. In fact, American sportswriter explored it in his 2019 book Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.
Bryan Marsal, longtime Winged Foot member and chair of the then 2020 Men’s US Open, has also said that the former president cheats.
“I played with him once. It was a Saturday morning game. We go to the first tee and he couldn’t have been nicer. But then he said, ‘You see those two guys? They cheat. See me? I cheat. And I expect you to cheat because we’re going to beat those two guys today’,” Mr Marsal said, according to a Golf.com article from 2019 titled “How and why President Trump cheats at golf — even when he’s playing against Tiger Woods”.
Mr Marsal added: “So, yes, it’s true, he’s going to cheat you. But I think Donald, in his heart of hearts, believes that you’re gonna cheat him, too. So if it’s the same, if everybody’s cheating, he doesn’t see it as really cheating.”
Another unidentified “frequent guest” in Trump’s games said: “I’ve played with him a lot. This one time, I was in the fairway and he was right of the green but a little bit down the hill. He didn’t think anybody was watching, but I was. I saw him make a chipping motion from the side of the hill but no ball came up.”
They added: “Then he walked up the hill, stuck his hand in the hole and pulled a ball out. It must’ve been a ball he had in his hand the whole time. Then he looked up and yelled, ‘I chipped in!’ I mean, who does that?”
