COMMANDER IN CHEAT

How golf explains life and reveals character, particularly when the golfer under consideration is Donald Trump.

Renowned sports columnist Reilly (Tiger, Meet My Sister...: And Other Things I Probably Shouldn't Have Said, 2014, etc.) has known the president for 30 years, from back when he was a star columnist for Sports Illustrated and Trump called him “my favorite writer!” He would often embellish, introducing the journalist to strangers as the president or publisher of SI. Being with Trump back then was “like spending the day in a hyperbole hurricane.” If Reilly was once a Trump favorite, he no longer will be, and it will be interesting to see if Trump responds to—or even acknowledges—this book. One of the revelations is that a large percentage of Trump’s more caustic tweets have actually come from a guy initially employed as his caddy. This is a book about how Trump lies and cheats constantly, qualities that may come with the territory in his newfound field of politics but which the author believes have no place in the gentlemanly sport of golf. Trump lies about his handicap, about the quality and reputation of his courses, about the profitability or lack thereof of these operations, and even about how much he actually plays. He is apparently “on a pace to play almost triple the amount of golf Obama played,” though he frequently criticized his predecessor for playing so often. He cheats on his score, his putts, and the lies of his shots, which miraculously make their way from the rough or even the water onto the fairway. “You can think Trump has made America great again,” writes Reilly at the conclusion of his amusing, entertaining assessment of a congenital liar. “You can think Trump has made America hate again. But there’s one thing I know: He’s made golf terrible again.”

Since Reilly takes golf more seriously than politics, making “golf terrible again” is the worst sin of all, but it’s one that explains so many others.