Author: patd

The World According to Golf

Golf.com  interview with Rick Reilly “America’s most recognizable — and funniest — sports columnists for decades… [about] His latest book, Commander in Cheat”:

The theme of your new book is that you tell a lot about someone’s character by the way they comport themselves on the golf course .
Arnold Palmer once told me that he never did a business deal until he played 18 holes with the guy. He said he could find out exactly who a guy is over four hours. They can’t hide it. And what you find out about Trump in golf is that he has to win. Whatever it takes. He doesn’t care about the money. He has to be the winner and you have to be the loser. And if that means kicking a ball out of the rough, having his caddie lie for him, taking all kinds of mulligans, you are going to lose. He kicks the ball out of the rough so often they call him Pele.

You seem to firmly believe that golf is a game of honor.
Yes. And Trump doesn’t offend me so much as a voter as he does as a golfer. We don’t cheat each other. The way I learned the game was to call your own penalties. If you cheat, then you despoil the game. Nobody should be able to say I shot 68 when they didn’t even break 80. I get lying about politics, but golf, you should never get to lie about golf.

What was playing with him like?
Well, he took a gimme chip-in, which I had never heard of. People say, Okay, so he cheats at golf. Well, yeah, but it goes deeper. If you’re going to cheat at golf, you’re probably going to cheat at business. And if you cheat at golf, you’re probably going to cheat on your wife. And if you cheat at golf, you’re probably going to cheat on your taxes.

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