GOP strategist: Of course, politics crept into the Masters

Yahoo

20-04-2025

The Masters Tournament is the greatest sporting event in the world — a perfect blend of tradition, beauty and drama. What truly sets it apart is the course itself. Augusta National's pristine fairways, blooming azaleas and iconic holes don't just test the players. They tell a story.
Each shot carries the weight of history, each Sunday is charged with the potential for greatness.
And last Sunday had it all.
Rory McIlroy — the face of the PGA Tour — was chasing his elusive career grand slam. Just behind him as the final day began was LIV Golf superstar Bryson DeChambeau. It was the pairing fans wanted: two elite players, two tours, one iconic stage.
Unfortunately, as is so often the case these days, politics found a way to creep in. The noise started Friday as DeChambeau began climbing the leaderboard. Almost immediately, online chatter speculated that his limited TV coverage was due to his support for Donald Trump. (DeChambeau's YouTube series 'Break 50' is genuinely great entertainment and his episode with the president is worth watching.)
In many ways, the collision of politics and golf was inevitable. The divide between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf mirrors the political climate in America. If the PGA Tour is the Republican Party, then LIV Golf is MAGA. The parallels are unmistakable: LIV hosts events at Trump courses, thrives on disruption, and rejects tradition. I've been to a LIV event. The crowd, the music, the atmosphere — it's a completely different experience. Honestly, it felt like a place where Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore might walk onto the tee box. Maybe that's why both MAGA and LIV are accused of the same thing: blowing up the very institutions they claim to be saving.
So, it's no surprise that a few social media posts about DeChambeau, Trump and supposed TV bias started circulating during the Masters — and before long, they had leaked into mainstream coverage and became part of the narrative.
This might sound silly or trivial on the surface, but the underlying belief is far more serious: that the mainstream media — even sports media — is part of a vast, coordinated 'deep state' conspiracy against all things Trump.
This isn't random. It's part of the MAGA playbook. That's why Trump lashes out at CNN's Kaitlan Collins for asking why he's defying a Supreme Court order. It's why Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses a questioner at a town hall of being 'brainwashed by the news.'
The goal is simple: Discredit, deflect and dismantle trust in anything that challenges their narrative.
It's a worldview that treats every critical question as an attack — and it's the same mentality behind Trump's push for the Federal Communications Commission to punish CBS and make them 'pay a big price' for coverage he found unfavorable.
Without question, there is bias in the media — and conservatives are right to call it out when coverage veers from journalism into fiction. But let's be clear, that doesn't make the media the enemy. Asking tough questions of those in power isn't an attack. It's a responsibility.
The Founding Fathers understood that unchecked power is a threat to liberty. That's why the Constitution wasn't written to restrain the people. It was written to restrain the government and protect our freedoms. Some rights were so essential, so foundational, that the Founders enshrined them in the Bill of Rights. Among them — the freedom of the press, the right to keep and bear arms, freedom of speech and assembly, and due process of law — stand as pillars of a free society.
These aren't suggestions. They're not tools to be used when convenient and discarded when uncomfortable. They are the guardrails of liberty. They ensure that a 'government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.' A free press — even an imperfect one — isn't a threat to the republic. It's proof that we still have one.
Matt Wylie is a South Carolina-based Republican political strategist and analyst with more than 25 years of experience working on federal, state and local campaigns.