Donald Trump claims to have hit a hole-in-one at his Florida golf course while playing with former world number one Ernie Els.
The former president issued a long statement, on Monday, about the shot, that he took during the game on Saturday.
Earlier, a federal court said that Trump likely committed offences in attempting to reverse his election loss to Joe Biden. Also on Monday, a House committee on January 6 recommended criminal contempt charges against two aides, Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro.
If Trump’s hole-in-one comment was supposed to alter the discussion, it was not his first such ploy.
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It was, however, less spectacular than his action last week, when a prosecutor who resigned from a probe into Trump’s financial dealings stated that the former president committed “many” offences.
Trump then filed a 108-page complaint claiming a huge conspiracy directed by Hillary Clinton to delegitimize his administration.
“Many people are asking, so I’ll give it to you now, it is 100% true. While playing with the legendary golfer, Ernie Els, winner of four majors and approximately 72 other tournaments throughout the world, Gene Sauers, winner of the Senior US Open, Ken Duke and Mike Goodes, both excellent tour players, I made a hole-in-one,” Trump stated in his Monday remarks.
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Trump said he hit his hole-in-one on the par-three seventh hole at Trump International in West Palm Beach. As he hit a five iron, he mentioned a “slight breeze” and a “very strong wind.” “The ball bounced twice and then went clank into the hole,” he claimed.
“These great tour players noticed it before I did because their eyes are slightly better, but on that one hole only, their swings weren’t.”
The announcement was followed by a video. It showed Trump removing a ball from the hole, but not the stroke he claimed placed it there.
Els tweeted on Trump’s 45th presidency, saying, “Great shot on Saturday 45! Fun to watch the ball roll in for a hole-in-one.”
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It has been widely stated that Trump is a golf cheat. Rick Reilly, a golf writer, wrote Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump in 2019.
Reilly reported on Trump’s penchant for boasting dubious exploits, as well as recurring rule breaches, citing sources including PGA Tour pro-Brad Faxon and actor Samuel L Jackson.
“Donald Trump’s boast about winning 18 club championships is a lie that’s so over-the-top Crazytown it loses all credibility among golfers the second it’s out of his mouth.,” Reilly wrote.
Reilly further stated that Trump International in West Palm Beach, Florida, which is now the location of Trump’s alleged hole-in-one, “has a plaque on the wall that lists all the men who’ve won the men’s club championship. Trump appears three times: 1999, 2001, and 2009. But hold on. The course wasn’t even open in 1999.”
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Reilly also looked into Trump’s assertion that he had a handicap of 2.8. Jack Nicklaus, widely regarded as the greatest golfer of all time, plays off 3.4. “If Trump is a 2.8, Queen Elizabeth is a pole vaulter,” Reilly says.
On Monday, Trump’s hole-in-one claim was received with considerable scepticism – and lots of similarities to Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator who claimed to have shot 11 holes-in-one in his first round.
The Washington Post reporter Philip Bump spoke for many when he responded to Trump’s comments.
“After nearly seven years in the public eye, Donald Trump has somehow managed to out-Donald-Trump himself,” Bump wrote.
