Pub. Note: This column is Rick’s last one for awhile. He’s writing a book, doing some consulting and re-dedicating himself to his golf game, which he abandoned a couple years ago. So, consider this Stanton On…Signing Off—if only temporarily.
By Rick Stanton
Golf is hard. Unless you play at least twice a week and go the range at least once a week, you’ll forever be plagued by inconsistency.
At my best, while a member at Wing Point Golf & Country Club on Bainbridge Island, I was a 12 handicap. This means that, on average, I’d score somewhere around 84. Sometimes I did. But when you looked at my scores for a season it was full of totals like 91, 105, 79, 80 and 76. I was all over the place on a course I knew like the back of my hand.
But as hard as golf is, it’s the easiest way to find out all about someone’s integrity in a mere four-hour round. This leads me to a book all you Trump supporters need to read.
It’s titled “Commander in Cheat,” with the subtitle “How golf explains Trump.” It’s written by Rick Reilly, one of the most respected sports writers in the country. He’s written for Sports Illustrated and ESPN and won the National Sports Writer of the Year 11 times and the Damon Runyon Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. He’s not a hack.
In the book, Reilly relates stunning stories of Trump’s constant cheating in a game rooted in following the rules, policing your own game and being 100% honest with your playing partners. You simply don’t cheat.
If, after reading this book, you still support Trump, you’re a delusional fool. And as I’ve said in all of my missives about Trump, this is not a Republican thing with me. Trump is a morally bankrupt sleaze, and golf reveals all his warts, explains why he lies about everything and underscores the reasons most of the free world hates him.
Here are a couple of Reilly’s excerpts that are quite telling.
“Whenever I’ve caddied in Trump’s group,” says Puga, “he always gets his own cart. He makes sure to hit first off every tee box and then jumps in the cart, so he’s halfway down the fairway before the other three are done driving. That way he can get there quick and mess with his ball. So this one time, we were on the 18th tee and he hits first, kind of blocks it to the right, jumps in the cart and starts driving away, My guy puts one right down the middle. One of the best drives of the day. But by the time we get to my guy’s ball, it’s not there. We can’t find it anywhere. Trump is now on the green already putting. And then Trump starts yelling back at us, “Hey guys, I made a birdie.” And then we realized that f&%$#@ stole our ball. He got up to it early, hit OUR ball and then hurried up and pretended like he made the putt for birdie.”
And this: “Trump happened to walk into the Bedminster clubhouse just as a worker was putting up the name of the newly crowned senior club championship winner on a wooden plaque. Trump had been out of town and hadn’t played in the tournament, but when he saw the player’s name, he stopped the employee. “Hey, I beat that guy all the time. Put my name up there instead.”
The worker was flummoxed. “Really, sir?” “Yeah, yeah. I beat that guy constantly. I would have beaten him. Put my name up there.”
Trump’s amount of lying, cheating and disrespect for the game is so unbelievable, even I was taken aback. I know the guy is corrupt and poisons about everything he comes close to and lied to the people who voted for him, but this book is a jaw dropper.
Buy the book, read it and ask yourself who you want running our country and representing it to the rest of the world as the 2020 presidential election approaches.
https://www.amazon.com/Commander-Cheat-Golf-Explains-Trump-ebook/dp/B07H4Z26T7