Golf’s pitch to distance itself from Donald Trump came five years too late

The golf establishment’s decision to finally turn its back on the US president is hardly a profile in courage after five years of see no evil, hear no evil

Donald Trump has always placed substantial value on sports as an inextricable stripe of American life and bought in accordingly. He owned a team in the upstart United States Football League in the early 1980s and made a splashy but failed bid for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in the 2010s. He ponied up eight-figure site fees to host major prizefights at his Atlantic City casino before it went bankrupt. He has actively courted athlete endorsements throughout his political life, keenly aware of the power of sportsperson as influencer among both the patrician and working-class sets.

So as the walls close in during the final days of his presidency, his Twitter account neutered and reputation forever stained for his part in inciting last week’s insurrection at the US Capitol, there’s a certain poetic justice to be found in the rejection he’s experienced from his favorite sport of all, if only because we know it is very likely the only meaningful consequence he will face.