Trump is desperate to host the Open – but faces one big handicap

There are some entertaining tales of Donald Trump's cheating on the golf course. Samuel L Jackson tells a story of playing with the US president at Trump National in New Jersey and watching Trump's ball hook into a lake with a splash, only for his caddie to mysteriously discover it safely on dry land. The American sportswriter Rick Reilly published a book on the subject – Commander in Cheat – in which he wrote: '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.'
Whether or not Trump lies about his score and falsely claims to have won tournaments he didn't win – he vehemently denies all – what cannot be in doubt is his passion for the game. Trump played an estimated 261 rounds of golf during his first presidency, according to The Washington Post, spending the equivalent of nearly nine months of his four-year term on the course.
The sport has become entwined in his political life. Finnish president Alexander Stubb spent several hours playing with Trump at Mar-a-Lago and came away with a bumper economic deal, including the lucrative sale of icebreaker ships to the US. Golf might be the diplomatic channel through which Trump is most susceptible to persuasion.
So perhaps we shouldn't have been surprised by reports this week that Keir Starmer is trying to leverage the game for British gain. Ever since buying Turnberry in 2014, Trump has been desperate for The Open Championship to return to the Scottish course, where it has been staged four times over the past 50 years but not since 2009. Such is the US president's love of golf that the UK government believes holding the prestigious tournament on Trump property could help smooth any wrinkles in talks over an economic deal in the coming months.
Turnberry sits on a stunning slice of rugged Ayrshire coastline, with a championship course which dates back more than a century wrapping around the imposing white-walled hotel which looks out over the Firth of Clyde. The views from the elevated sixth tee are breathtaking and it has laid the stage for some golfing history, most famously when Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson battled for the Claret Jug in 1977, which later became the subject of a documentary titled Duel in the Sun.
When Trump bought the course he was not yet president, still just an eccentric real estate mogul, egotistical and brash but perceived as relatively harmless. The greatest concern was that he might do something vulgar like replacing Turnberry's famous lighthouse with a statue of himself.
Instead Trump vowed to respect the history of the course and heaped praise on the R&A, which organises The Open. In response, the R&A sounded positive noises about Trump's $200m investment in the historic site and hinted that Turnberry was overdue the right to host.
Sport has long been wielded as a tool of soft power, even at the dawn of the Olympic Games when Greece showed off its sporting prowess in the face of neighbouring countries. Adolf Hitler used the 1936 Olympics to promote Germany's image and hide Nazi horrors, while Vladimir Putin used the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi as cover to invade Crimea during the Games.
Trump has already been gifted two of sport's greatest jewels to buff his fragile ego during this second term. The 2026 World Cup will be shared with his old friends Mexico and Canada, although the majority of matches – including the final – will be played in the United States. The 2028 LA Olympics follows two years later, and Trump will no doubt hijack both for his own ends.
But The Open offers something different, something more subtle than a grand show of global power. Golf's long history and tradition gives Trump a veneer of respectability that can't be found in the casinos of Atlantic City, and there is no greater tradition than The Open, first played in 1860. The clue is in the name R&A – Royal and Ancient – and it is much the same reason Trump likes rubbing shoulders with the Royal Family.
Trump's sons Eric and Donald Jr run the money-losing SLC Turnberry which manages the course, and in return for being gifted the right to host, they have promised 'the greatest Open of all time'. But the reality of staging it at Turnberry is more complicated.
The tournament is a vital money-spinner for the R&A and in recent years it has sold a quarter of a million tickets over The Open week. That number of spectators would make Turnberry creak, not just in its on-course infrastructure but due to the lack of suitable transport links and accommodation in the local area. The last time The Open was held there it received less than half the fans the R&A would expect now.
The other problem is Trump himself. Last month red paint was dawbed across the Turnberry Hotel's white walls by pro-Palestinian protesters, one of many protests to have taken place on the property during his presidency. Trump's presence would loom large over the event and golf would no doubt be lost in the shadows.
The previous R&A chief executive, Martin Slumbers, said in the wake of the 2021 attack on the US Capitol that The Open would not return to Turnberry 'until we are convinced the focus will be on the Championship, the players and the course itself, and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances'. But his successor Mark Darbon has sounded more positive notes, saying he 'would love' to see The Open back there one day. After enquiries from the UK government, the R&A is now conducting a feasibility study into whether Turnberry could play host to The Open in 2028.
Ultimately it is the R&A's decision, and money may talk louder than politics. The government insists it is not trying to twist arms here, but in its efforts to woo Trump it has a genuine ace card in The Open, a prize that touches the president personally, and few leaders around the world can say that. Meanwhile Trump will continue to drop not-so-subtle hints, pulling at the willing lever that is the UK prime minister. Because this is one round of golf he would dearly love to fix.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

The Independent

19 minutes ago

• The Independent

Has Iran actually tried to kill Trump? Here's what we know

Days after it was reported that Donald Trump rejected Israel's plot to assassinate Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the president publicly announced that the United States knows his location and is holding off killing him 'for now.' Israeli officials, meanwhile, have openly demanded his death. This week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei 'can no longer be allowed to exist.' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, turning to Fox News over the weekend to make the case for the United States to join a war with Iran, said Khamenei sees the president as 'public enemy number one.' Israel has sought to justify intervention using allegations of Trump's assassination threats as leverage, while the United States has faced years of blowback in the wake of Middle East wars and the 2020 killing of a top Iranian general. During his first administration in 2020, Trump ordered a drone strike near Baghdad International Airport that killed Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite Quds Force with Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, after he had survived several assassination attempts from western, Israeli and Arab states over the past two decades. The strike, which was planned over several months, ignited fierce blowback across the region, denounced by Iran's foreign minister at the time as an act of international terrorism. By 2024, U.S. intelligence officials had collected evidence they believe shows Tehran was seeking ways to kill then-candidate Trump, according to Politico. In September, Trump claimed there were 'big threats on my life by Iran.' Neither of the two assassination attempts against then-candidate Trump in the summer of 2024 have been linked to Iran. One month earlier, a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran was accused of seeking to carry out a murder-for-hire plot targeting U.S. government officials, according to federal prosecutors. Asif Raza Merchant was accused of joining a complex plot to carry out assassinations last year, including trying to hire hit men who were undercover officers, according to an indictment. In November, a fugitive Iranian government operative was accused of hiring a pair of New Yorkers he met in prison to carry out an assassination plot against a critic of the regime. He allegedly admitted to FBI agents that he'd also been tasked with finding a hit squad to kill then-President-elect Trump. Farhad Shakeri claimed he was asked by regime officials to 'put aside his other efforts... and focus on surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating' Trump, according to a criminal complaint in Manhattan federal court. In February, Trump, who campaigned against U.S. involvement in foreign wars, said Iran would be 'obliterated' if he was assassinated by state actors. 'That would be a terrible thing for them to do,' he told reporters. 'Not because of me. If they did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end. I've left instructions: if they do it, they get obliterated. There won't be anything left.' Iran has denied ever targeting the president. 'A new scenario is fabricated,' Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X following accusations against Shakeri. 'The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the president of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect,' Araghchi wrote. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the allegations were part of a 'repulsive' plot by Israel to 'complicate matters between America and Iran.' In January, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stressed that Iran 'never attempted' to kill Trump, 'and we never will.' 'This is another one of those schemes that Israel and other countries are designing to promote Iranophobia,' Pezeshkian told NBC News. 'Iran has never attempted to, nor does it plan to assassinate anyone. At least as far as I know.' Asked whether there have been any plots against the president under Iran, he insisted there have been 'none whatsoever.' On June 15, Netanyahu asked Fox News host Bret Baier whether 'these people who chant 'death to America'' and 'tried to assassinate President Trump twice' should 'have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to your cities.' Baier then pressed Netanyahu about his claim that Iran launched two assassination attempts. 'Through proxies, yes.' he said. 'Through, through their intel, yes, they want to kill him,' he added. 'He's enemy number one.' Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has emerged as a prominent voice across right-wing media against the United States joining Israel's war, told Texas Senator Ted Cruz that the United States would be bombing Tehran if those assassination allegations were credible. 'We should attack Iran immediately if that's true,' he said. Cruz insisted that 'nobody disputes' Iran is trying to kill the president, calling it an 'objective fact' following his interview with Carlson. On Thursday, Trump said he plans to decide on whether to order U.S. warplanes to strike Iranian nuclear facilities within the next two weeks, depending on whether Tehran engages in talks over ending their nuclear weapons program. In a statement relayed through White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Trump said: 'Based on the fact that there's a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.' The president's statement followed a week of escalating strikes between Israel and Iran. More than 600 Iranians and at least two dozen Iranians have been killed, according to officials.

Leader Live

34 minutes ago

• Leader Live

Pope Leo flags AI's impact on children's intellectual and spiritual development

History's first American pope sent a message to a conference of AI and ethics, part of which was taking place in the Vatican in a sign of the Holy See's concern for the new technologies and what they mean for humanity. In the message, Leo said any further development of AI must be evaluated according to the 'superior ethical criterion' of the need to safeguard the dignity of each human being, while respecting the diversity of the world's population. He warned specifically that new generations are most at risk, given they have never had such quick access to information. 'All of us, I am sure, are concerned for children and young people and the possible consequences of the use of AI on their intellectual and neurological development,' he said in the message. 'Society's wellbeing depends upon their being given the ability to develop their God-given gifts and capabilities' and not allow them to confuse mere access to data with intelligence. 'In the end, authentic wisdom has more to do with recognising the true meaning of life, than with the availability of data,' he said. Leo, who was elected in May after the death of Pope Francis, has identified AI as one of the most critical matters facing humanity, saying it poses challenges to defending human dignity, justice and labour. He has explained his concern for AI by invoking his namesake, Pope Leo XIII. That Leo was pope during the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and made the plight of workers, and the need to guarantee their rights and dignity, a key priority. Towards the end of his pontificate, Francis became increasingly vocal about the threats to humanity posed by AI and called for an international treaty to regulate it. Francis said politicians must take the lead in making sure AI remains human-centric, so that decisions about when to use weapons or even less-lethal tools always remain made by humans and not machines.

NBC News

44 minutes ago

• NBC News

What could happen if Trump does decide to bomb Iran's main nuclear site

If President Donald Trump does decide to use the United States' largest conventional bomb to destroy Iran's fortresslike Fordo nuclear enrichment facility, the colossal force of the explosion would likely cause casualties among workers or anyone else still at the site. But it would not trigger a nuclear explosion or a widespread radiological or chemical spill, according to former nuclear officials and experts. Sitting to the south of Iran's capital, Tehran, the Fordo plant is used to enrich uranium for the production of nuclear energy or, potentially, a bomb. But although this uranium and its chemical byproducts can be harmful to ingest or touch without protective equipment — they won't create a wider blast or regional contamination, analysts say. That would only be the case if Fordo housed nuclear reactors or warheads, which international watchdogs and experts say is not the case. 'If you're down there and it gets bombed, you're stuffed,' Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, the ex-commanding officer of the British military's Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Regiment, told NBC News on Thursday. 'But that's because this is a 2,500-kilogram (about 5,500-pound) warhead we are talking about here,' he said, referring to the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (or MOP), the largest non-nuclear bomb in the world, which only the U.S. has. Less of a bunker-buster and more of a mountain-buster, this is perhaps the only conventional ordnance in the world that could do the job if Trump did decide to bomb Fordo. 'But if anyone thinks this would be like Chernobyl — absolutely not,' de Bretton-Gordon said. 'Blowing up uranium will not create a nuclear explosion; that is a very complex piece of science, which is why it's so bloody difficult to make nuclear bombs.' There is also little chance of a wider radiation leak or spill impacting the surrounding area, according to Mark Nelson, founder and managing director of Radiant Energy Group, a research consultancy based in Chicago. That's because 'the nuclear substances at Fordo are only very weakly radioactive,' he said. Were this a nuclear plant or missile site, there could be 'fission products' — the stuff uranium breaks down into during a nuclear reaction — which can cause a wider catastrophe. Scrutiny has nonetheless sharpened on Fordo as Trump deliberates whether to join Israel's attacks on Iran. Iran's most advanced enrichment facility, Fordo was refining uranium to 60%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. That's far more than the 3-5% needed for power plants — and far closer to the 90% required to build a warhead. Until 2018, Iran had been complying with a landmark deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, that offered Tehran billions of dollars in sanctions relief in exchange for agreeing to curb its nuclear program. The agreement was sealed by President Barack Obama in July 2015, along with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., Russia, France, China and the United Kingdom — as well as Germany and the European Union. Most independent observers said it was successfully limiting Iran's nuclear program. That effectively collapsed when Trump walked away from the pact three years later. Iran had been back in talks with Trump when Israel started bombing last week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had no choice because Iran was racing toward building a bomb, something the International Atomic Energy Agency says it has not been able to confirm. The watchdog has been nonetheless concerned about Fordo, where uranium's naturally mined form is turned into a gas and spun at high speed inside centrifuges. That separates its heavier isotope, uranium-238, from the lighter uranium-235 that can be used for civilian purposes or otherwise. Iran says Fordo was designed to hold 3,000 of these centrifuges, a 'size and configuration' that is 'inconsistent with a peaceful program,' Obama said in 2009. Observers such as de Bretton-Gordon say the U.S.'s enormous MOP bomb might be powerful enough not only to destroy this facility but effectively incase it under the collapsed mountain. That could produce a similar effect to the sarcophagus built around Chernobyl after the disaster in 1986, Bretton-Gordon said. Whereas Chernobyl's protective enclosure is 40 feet thick, 'at Fordo we would be talking about a sarcophagus 200-feet thick,' de Bretton-Gordon said. That's not to say the risk of contamination would be zero. If the uranium gas is released, it would partly decompose into hydrofluoric acid, a deadly substance that causes deep-tissue burns if touched without protective gear, and potentially fatal problems for the heart, lungs and nervous system if inhaled. 'It's a nasty chemical to be around without correct safety equipment and procedures,' said Nelson at the Radiant Energy Group. Any blast survivors, or rescuers without the necessary safety equipment, would face 'extremely severe' consequences, he said, but caveated that 'you have to be really close and really unprotected.' There is also a chance that radioactive material could seep into any water source that's running through the mountain. But the likely radioactive levels would be low — detectable rather than harmful — both Nelson and de Bretton-Gordon said. Ultimately, Nelson agreed, all of these risks pale in comparison with the threat posed by the MOP bomb itself, whose payload is upward of 5,500 pounds and weighs a total of 30,000 pounds. 'The danger at the seaside of saltwater ingestion is real — even a few liters could kill you,' he analogized. 'This danger, however, is relatively small compared to drowning.'