Turns Out Trump is Actually (Sort Of) Good at Golf — A Breakdown of the First Significant Footage of Trump Golfing in Years

As someone who loves golf, I’ve been fascinated by stories about former President Donald Trump’s alleged prowess on the links. I’ve written about many of his most spectacular boasts with great skepticism. And while I still consider most of those claims highly dubious, I’ve come here now to say:

I think Donald Trump is actually a pretty good golfer.

I arrive at that opinion after having watched the first significant video to emerge of Trump playing golf in many years — an hour-long session with reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau on his YouTube page. There has been the occasional social media clip from a MAGA influencer promoting a Trump moment of glory, but no sustained footage showing the entirety of the former president’s game.

Trump and DeChambeau played on the new course at Trump’s club in Bedminster, NJ — one of two courses at the highly regarded club. The duo played from the course’s “red” tees (the shortest of six on the course). They played what’s known as a scramble format (in which both players hit each shot from the same location, and the team uses only the better of the two shots). The goal of the gimmick is to shoot less than 50 — an absurdly low score and something DeChambeau has yet to achieve on any of his videos. But with Trump, he came very close.

Trump is not absurdly long off the tee, but he is accurate. He seems to hit his drives in the 200-225 yard range — not bad at all for a 78-year-old player. And most importantly, he hits the fairway with consistency. That’s crucial to his success. His accuracy likely helps him take big numbers out of play. While he might not make many birdies, I suspect he doesn’t make many double bogeys either.

His short iron and wedge play is solid. All but twice when he was confronted with a shot of 90-125 yards, he hit the green. To be clear, a good player should be cashing in regularly when they’re in the fairway and at that distance from the hole. But except for two chunky shots, the former president mostly held his own from short range.

Unfortunately, we didn’t really get to see Trump hit any mid-irons — so that part of his game remains a mystery. We also didn’t watch him try to navigate much adversity in the rough or sand. But then, he generally seems to avoid trouble off the tee, so it’s likely he’s not putting himself in too many tight spots.

Now, his putting stroke is nothing short of a nightmare. It is ghastly to watch. He takes a quick jab at the ball and then yanks the putter up and to the side. You would think he’d have a better chance putting with a rake.

And yet somehow… it works for him. Resistance Twitter hero Ron Filipkowski, in an apparent attempt to roast the former president, made a compilation video showing most of Trump’s misses from long range.

But just about all of them were solid putts. Their aim was not to necessarily go in the hole, but merely finish close enough to ensure the next one can be made easily. He very likely would have two-putted just about every green — which is all a good player is trying to do when they are more than 15 feet from the hole. The former president also sunk a couple of bombs — including one on 18 to give the Trump/DeChambeau team a final score of 50, or -22 on the par-72 layout. Trump’s odd stroke might defy physics, but it seems to be effective.

Now let’s be clear: Based on this footage, Trump’s most absurd claims are still impossible to buy. I flatly refuse to believe he actually won a club championship earlier this year playing to a handicap of 2.5. At most clubs, the winning score for a champion is well under par — factoring in handicaps. The Trump I saw on video, getting only two or three strokes, would definitely fall short of breaking par — even if he played from the course’s “white” tees. (The whites are the third shortest of six tee boxes at Trump Bedminster’s new course, and generally the shortest tee box on which men’s events are played at most clubs.) On his very best day playing from the white tees, I could buy that he might be in contention for a Senior Club Championship, but my guess is he would ultimately fall short in those events as well.

A GOP congressional candidate in Georgia recently claimed Trump put two pros to “shame” en route to a round of 70. First off, even if the former president shot 70, the pros would hardly have felt shamed. And second, I highly doubt he’s capable of shooting a legitimate, no-cheating 70 on Trump Bedminster or any of his courses (from the whites, at least, which are the shortest tees from which a man with a 2 handicap could credibly play).

But based on the video, my guess is he’s a solid 8-10 handicap — which is darn good for age 78. He’s probably capable of breaking 80 from time-to-time, and rarely shoots above 90. And that’s not bad at all. Plenty of recreational players (this writer included) would love to be a single digit handicap.

And yet, it seems that’s neither good enough for Trump and allies (who insist he puts the pros to shame) nor his most severe critics (who laugh at him for missing putts the pros only sink a quarter of the time). There is a middle ground between great and awful. Trump’s golf game lies somewhere within it. (Closer to great — although not that close.)

And there’s nothing wrong with that. As any golfer knows, par is a perfectly fine score.

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This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.