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USA Today
28-07-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Viral video showing Trump in Scotland leads to golf cheating accusations
Longstanding accusations of President Donald Trump cheating at golf have resurfaced after a video of him in Scotland over the weekend went viral. Trump golfed with his son Eric Trump and others at the Trump Turnberry resort, according to a pool report. Video footage of Trump on a golf course posted on X July 27 by left-leaning account PatriotTakes has gone viral on social media, with people claiming it shows Trump cheating at golf. (Trump posted his own sizzle reel of his golf swings on his social media platform Truth Social earlier in the weekend.) In the video, Trump pulls his golf cart to a stop in the rough before of a sand trap. His caddie, walking ahead of him, appears to drop a golf ball in the grass beside him. Trump approaches the ball, but the video cuts off before Trump hits it. USA TODAY could not immediately verify the time or origin of the video and there is no context or video showing where Trump actually hit his previous shot. The post by PatriotTakes has garnered 4.5 million views on X as of July 28 midday. Trump has long boasted of his golf game and claimed victory in several golf tournaments against seemingly impossible odds. This video is not the first time he has been accused of outright cheating in the sport. More: Trump celebrates golf tournament win and Chelsea FIFA Club World Cup win on same day Trump has been accused of cheating in the past This is not the first time the president has been accused of cheating at golf. In fact, sportswriter Rick Reilly wrote a whole book about it in 2019: "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.'' Another Winged Foot member who played with Trump said that Trump would cheat because he thought he was being cheated by other players, too, according to an excerpt from the book as reported by For the Win. Trump often boasts about his golf tournament victories, even when his win seems impossible. He once said he won a club championship when he didn't play the first round. In another instance, he said he won an event with a score lower than many LIV golf pros. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the video. Why did Donald Trump travel to Scotland? Trump discussed trade with EU and UK leaders on his trip to Scotland as the Aug. 1 deadline approaches for reciprocal tariffs, which were delayed for the second time in early July. On July 27, Trump announced the U.S. had reached a trade deal with the European Union: most goods would be tariffed at 15%, lower than the 30% Trump had previously threatened but higher than the 10% Europeans had hoped for. The Trump Organization also owns two golf courses in Scotland: Trump Turnberry and Trump International Scotland. The Trump International Scotland resort is poised to open a second golf course next month. The resort includes buildings bearing the name of Trump's mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who emigrated from Scotland to New York in the 1930s. This trip precludes a more elaborate formal state visit in the fall. Contributing: Tom D'Angelo, Zac Anderson, Savannah Kuchar, Bart Jansen, Medora Lee, USA TODAY Network Kinsey Crowley is the Trump Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her at kcrowley@ Follow her on X and TikTok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky at @
USA Today
11-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
'It better not be easier when you're done': 5 things I learned from Gil Hanse on Oakmont
'It better not be easier when you're done': 5 things I learned from Gil Hanse on Oakmont OAKMONT, Pa. – It's not every major championship where you get invited to have breakfast with the man most responsible for the renovation of Oakmont. But thanks to the good people at Rolex, I sat next to this era's unofficial 'Open Doctor' Gil Hanse, while enjoying an omelet. Hanse's handiwork is on Open venues past and present, such as Winged Foot and Merion (also, The Olympic Club, which has a PGA and Ryder Cup and U.S. Amateur on the books) and he prepped Oakmont for the 125th U.S. Open in 2023. I listened to him hold court to a dozen or so members of the media and here are five things I learned from Hanse on Oakmont that you'll want to know either to enhance your experience as a viewer or spectator this week. This is the overriding philosophy that guided the changes to Oakmont GIL HANSE: You had a very interesting setup where you had a family, a father and a son [Henry and W.C. Fownes] who were here for 44 years, from 1903 to 1947, that continually tinkered with the golf course. We focused on 44 years and a family that was insistent on making sure the difficulty increased, never decreased; you had a lot of homework to do. So we decided that we couldn't focus on a point in time for Oakmont, but we could focus on, in our opinion, what we thought the best version of each whole was. What you're seeing now is basically an eclectic or greatest hits 18 holes presented by the Fownes. We worked with the membership to try to figure out what would provide the best test for the greatest golfers in the game, but also an adequate test for this membership, and I'm hopeful we hit on every hole out there. One of the things that has been consistent with Oakmont from day one, when Henry Fownes founded it, and one of the things that was very clear in the messaging from the membership, is they liked this place tough. They wanted it to play hard. It's the only time I've ever come out of a meeting with the members where we presented the master plan, and it was very, very clear to me that the message was it better not be easier when you're done. Usually, members are like, 'Please make it more playable, a little bit easier,' but here, no ... I've used the phrase unapologetically difficult. That's what [the field is] getting this week. ... By the way, I don't think it's urban myth, but there is a swimming pool underneath those tents, and the reason he left the club was because they put in a swimming pool. He said this is a golf club and the board still voted to put that in, and he said, 'I'm out.' That tells you their mentality when it comes to [the setup of the course]. Choices entice players to make decisions GH: At No. 2 and 14, we've opened up landing areas, trying to entice them to take a longer club and hit it a little bit further, which might be counterintuitive. Some people might think you want to just squeeze it off and make them hit longer irons in, but we'd rather them make that decision, that was part and parcel with the design there. This is why Hanse added another pew — a 13th — to the famed Church Pews bunker GH: Because of the distance where (players) hit it. We added 40 yards to the back of three, so it's now 340 to carry the Church Pews. And then same on 4, going back the other way, we needed to add length to it. We thought if we expanded the footprint of the bunker and left the same number of pews in there, the spacing and the scale would have been out of kilter. They added pews before in '07, so it's not like we did something that's never been done before. And then we also looked at the configuration of the pews, and there's a great photo of William Fownes standing on the pews, and the caption underneath is 'The Snake Mounds at Oakmont.' They weren't even called the Church Pews early on, and they were much more irregular and mounded, and they twisted, and I think that's part of the snake thing. They had become very regularized over a long period of time. So if you look at them now, they've got more humps and bumps, and they're twisted and turn a little bit to be a little bit more accurate. And so that was nerve-wracking, to be honest. Whenever you tear apart something that is so iconic, it's – we had Kye Goalby and Matt Smallwood, were our two shapers who did phenomenal work and they are super talented – they were frozen for a little while. Taking that first bite, it was hard to get them to do it. Hanse's involvement in the course set-up decisions this week will be minimal GH: Those of you may remember, I had a very brief television career with Fox when they had the U.S. Open, and I made it part of my research – because we weren't involved in any of the golf courses at that time – to walk the set up in the morning just to learn and listen. I was respectful and thoughtful and just basically listened, didn't interject, and I still don't interject a lot because those guys are great at what they do. I see how much energy and effort they put into it. If they ask me a question, I'll answer it, but I'm not out there pointing and waving, but yes, they've invited me to be part of an early morning, 5:30 a.m. walk around, and then every day there's a set up meeting at 2:30 p.m., and I sit quietly and if they ask me a question, I'm happy to answer it ... but my hands are off the wheel this week. This is where Hanse would camp out and watch the entire field play through GH: I love the short four, so I think I'd probably watch them play No. 2, and I love what we did to 13 green. I think the restoration to 13 green is going to be fascinating to watch those guys putt into different hole locations. You also can see 12, which always provides a lot of interest. So yeah, I would say probably 13 and 2.
Irish Independent
10-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Independent
Scheffler and Rahm focussed on fairway finding at Oakmont
The Spanish star, champion at Torrey Pines in 2021, is fully aware that the feared Pittsburgh venue has produced a slew of power-hitting winners. But he also knows power without control won't cut it this week. "Length in a major like this, and even now in general in any sport, having that power is always helpful," he said of winners like Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera and Dustin Johnson. "I would like to guess that that week their driving was very much on point. I think it's obviously nearly impossible to win a tournament here if you're not hitting it well off the tee because, if you keep putting yourself off the fairway, for lack of a better term, you're not going to get Oakmont very often." Big-hitting DeChambeau destroyed Winged Foot playing bomb and gouge golf in 2020 before winning again last year despite late fairway misses at Pinehurst No 2. But world number one and title favourite Scheffler agreed with Rahm that fairway finding is going to be key this week. "This golf course, there are not many trees out there, but there are so many bunkers; I don't really know if this is a golf course you can necessarily just overpower with kind of a bomb and gouge type strategy, especially with the way the rough is," Scheffler said. "You have to play the angles. Some of the greens are elevated, other ones are pitched extremely away from you. "There's not really many areas where you step on the tee box and you're like, hey, I can miss it right here, hey, I can shade towards the left side of the fairway because right is really bad. "Actually, if you hit it in the right rough, you're probably not going to get it to the green; if you hit it in the left rough, you're probably not going to get it to the green. So might as well try and split the difference there and hit it in the middle." ADVERTISEMENT DeChambeau has a new set of innovative irons in the bag this week and may use the driver sparingly. But he insisted he won't be afraid to let loose with his biggest weapon. "Can I be fearless on this golf course? Well, yeah, anybody really can," DeChambeau said. "Are there times to be more reserved, depending on wind locations, softness of greens, pin locations, you name it, very strategic. "It's not like every single hole is Winged Foot out here. You can't just bomb it on every single hole and blast over bunkers and have a wedge run up to the front of the green. You can on a lot of the holes but not on every one of them. "I think this golf course, you have to be just a fraction more strategic, especially with the rough is so long. I'm going to be as fearless as I can possibly be out there; I know that." Rahm was the low amateur on his US Open debut at Oakmont in 2016 and while Johnson won on four-under that week, he senses that an over-par score could get the job done in a week when mental toughness will be the deciding factor. "It's just a tough course," said Rahm, who put Scheffler under pressure in the final round of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow but failed to press on down the stretch and ended up tied for eighth. "It's so difficult where very few times anybody has won under par. If it doesn't rain, most likely, over par will win again. "It's something that none of us, I would say, are used to, but it's a challenge you need to embrace. "If there's any part of your game that will be tested on a week like this, it will be your mental game, that's for sure."
The Herald Scotland
10-06-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Bryson DeChambeau 'super excited' at prospect of signing new LIV Golf contract
That expires in 2026 and, despite speculation suggesting DeChambeau is ready to rejoin the PGA Tour, he hinted his future remains with LIV. Ahead of the US Open at Oakmont, where he is the defending champion, Dechambeau said: 'Next year is when (his contract) ends. 'We're looking to negotiate at the end of this year, and I'm very excited. They see the value in me. I see the value in what they can provide, and I believe we'll come to some sort of resolution on that. Super excited for the future. 'I think that LIV is not going anywhere. (Yasir Al Rumayyan, governor of PIF) has been steadfast in his belief on team golf, and whether everybody believes in it or not, I think it's a viable option. 'I think it's a viable commercial option. Our team has been EBIDTA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation) positive for the past two years, so we're starting to grow and move in the right direction. One of the best moments of my — Bryson DeChambeau (@brysondech) June 16, 2024 'I know my worth. I know what LIV brings to the table. And I'm excited for the future of what golf is going to be.' DeChambeau is bidding to win his third US Open following victories at Winged Foot in 2020 and Pinehurst last year, where he edged out Rory McIlroy in a thrilling finish. He has become a fixture on major championship leaderboards since his move to LIV Golf, his US Open win last year one of five top-six finishes in his last six starts. 'I think for any golfer out here trying to win the US Open, there's just as much pressure. 'You can put as much pressure on yourself as you want. I try to look at it as there's a lot of fans out there. 'I'm excited to showcase my skill sets and try to play the best golf as I possibly can, and if that adds up to the lowest number out here, great. If not, I've got to work harder. 'That's the pressure I put on myself – performing for the fans. 'It's been an amazing year. I'm so grateful to have won the US Open. I worked hard to win at Pinehurst and have been playing some good golf after that.'
USA Today
08-06-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Q&A: Bryson DeChambeau talks title defense ahead of 2025 U.S. Open
Q&A: Bryson DeChambeau talks title defense ahead of 2025 U.S. Open Bryson DeChambeau is turning into a menace at the majors. It all really started back at the 2016 Masters when DeChambeau earned low amateur honors. That is also the week he became a Rolex ambassador and started a relationship that has meant a great deal to him. This year, DeChambeau was solo second at the Masters before tumbling on Sunday to 74 and finishing T-7. and he was co-runner-up at the PGA Championship last month at Quail Hollow. He heads to Oakmont, a big, brawny ballpark that should fit his eye as a two-time U.S. Open champion after his victory at Pinehurst No. 2 a year ago, which came four years after his maiden major title at Winged Foot. Q: You're the defending U.S. Open champion. How does it feel to return to the prestigious tournament with a title to defend? BD: I'm personally excited for the opportunity to defend. I haven't been able to defend a tournament in my career and that's what I intend to do this coming year. It's always a great tournament at Oakmont and it's going to be an excellent tournament host, so I'm excited for the challenge. I played well there last time and look forward to doing so again this year. With the game that I'm coming in with, I feel very confident. Q: The U.S. Open is known for its demanding golf courses. What makes your approach to the game, particularly your style, so well suited for challenges like the U.S. Open and Oakmont in 2025? BD: Everybody talks about how technical I am, but I am very strategic, thoughtful and artistic when it comes to the U.S. Open test. You can't be perfect out there, and the U.S. Open is going to throw tests at you left, right and center. It's the most difficult test in the game of golf, and the most resilient players usually shine brightest in those venues. I feel like I've been able to keep my emotions in check and give myself the best opportunity to perform well in those difficult situations. I feel like I thrive the most in those situations. Q: Your 2024 U.S. Open win marked a major highlight in your career. What did that victory mean to you personally and professionally? BD: For me, it meant that I wasn't just a fluke that had won one of the years. I felt that it symbolized that my game is meant to stay, that it's a force for good and a force to be reckoned with when I've got everything flowing and going in the right direction. For me, personally, it gave me the comfort and validation that I can play this great game for the rest of my life and enjoy it as well. That was the first time I was able to go into a tournament really enjoying the test of golf that was presented and I had the equipment that allowed me to perform at my highest level. I just had ultimate comfort that week. Q: As a player who continually pushes the boundaries of the sport with your unique methods, how do you see the evolution of your game shaping your 2025 season and beyond? BD: It's going to be equipment driven. My practice and resilience in getting better and being more repeatable will always be there, but I think the biggest difference is going to come about from the equipment I put into play. You're going to see a different Bryson DeChambeau next year due to the equipment I'm playing with, which is a great thing and something I'm very excited for. It's something that I've built, that I've created and I'm excited to showcase it to the world. Q: Who has been the biggest influence in your golf career? BD: I would say that the biggest influence career is Ben Hogan, Greg Norman and Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods pushed the boundaries on what we thought was possible with golf. As time goes on, Scottie Scheffler is an inspiration as well in terms of how well he's playing. I want to play to that level and inspire to play to that level as well. Q: You get to play on some of the best courses in the world. What's your favorite course and why? BD: Cypress Point – there's not even a question about it. It's because it's the best built golf course I've ever seen in my entire life. It is my favorite design from Dr. Alister MacKenzie and I want to try and build my courses after what Dr. MacKenzie has built across the world. It's just aesthetically pleasing, technically difficult, strategic, and an all-encompassing journey across those 18 holes of golf. Q: How do you like to relax and spend time away from the golf course? BD: Most of the time I'm building something – whether it's a company, my home, my golf swing or golf clubs. I love building. It's my favorite thing. It's a passion and hobby of mine to always be creating. So it's either creating something in the game of golf, something outside it for business or ideating with content and creating unique fun, entertaining content on YouTube and socials.
