The President of the United States loves to brag about his golf game, and in particular his ability to keep dominating tournaments held at his own courses. It turns out the sport gets a lot easier when you have a helping hand.
Donald Trump was filmed over the weekend playing a round at Trump Turnberry in Scotland when his caddy clearly picked a ball up out of the rough and gave him a beneficial drop, ensuring his boss wouldn’t need to hack it out of the deep grass.
To be clear: Every single element is against the rules. Granted, this wasn’t a competitive round — but it’s wild to see a serious golfer like Trump blatantly disregard the rules for dropping a ball as outlined by the USGA.
“The ball must be dropped straight down from knee height, must be dropped by you (or your partner), must first strike the ground within your relief area or on the line when taking back-on-the-line relief, and must remain within the relief area. Your caddie is not allowed to drop your ball.”
- Dropped straight down from knee height? No.
- Strike the ground in a relief area? No.
- Remain in a relief area? No.
- Dropped by the caddie, which is illegal? Yes.
The video shows the caddies casually tossing the ball backwards so it doesn’t look like he’s making a drop, when he clearly is. The drop also isn’t being made to avoid a specific hazard that would make playing a shot awkward or unplayable — it’s simply to give the player an advantage. Trump is also staring right at his caddie, and doesn’t try to re-drop the ball to be fair, or admonish his caddie for giving him an advantage.
If this was at a sanctioned, proper tournament Trump would be disqualified and his name would be put on a list.
