Fans of Trump, or apologists, may find the going a little rougher, although I\u2019d wager they\u2019ll have to stifle a few guffaws as well. Reilly, as he has shown in a raft of books, particularly in the golf novels Missing Links<\/em> and Shanks for Nothing<\/em>, can\u2019t seem to help but write with rousing good humor.<\/p>\n In this case, it does seem like he\u2019s also writing with barely controlled fury over the antics of 45, even if mainly circumscribed here to the world of golf. But if how one approaches golf is indeed indicative of one\u2019s character, then this book may be a document far more damning than the Mueller Report is likely to be.<\/p>\n When I first wrote this review* the President was still unaccountably tussling with the ghost of the late John McCain\u2014losing to a dead man\u2014while Mueller\u2019s magnum opus was said to be ready to drop. If the latter is now being batted like a tennis ball across the political nets, there\u2019s always Reilly\u2019s brief.<\/p>\n Chapter after chapter indicts Trump\u2014if not with prosecutable actions (though that\u2019s open to debate)\u2014then surely with a total lack of ethics and character and, most inexcusable in a golf context, unsportsmanlike behavior.<\/p>\n We learn, to take just a few examples: And that\u2019s just Trump playing golf. Which, at the rate he\u2019s going so far, should far surpass the number of rounds Obama managed to get in in his eight years in office, which Trump so roundly criticized during his campaign. For those who really want to keep track, Reilly notes the eagle-eyed website TrumpGolfCount.com<\/a>, which at this writing has him at 178 rounds since his swearing-in, at a total cost to taxpayers of roughly $99 million. (About three times the estimated cost of the Mueller Report.)<\/p>\n Then there are the financial shenanigans involved in purchasing the golf courses he owns, until it begins to sound like a grand Ponzi scheme. We hear from the many contractors and architects he has shortchanged. And his exaggerated plaudits for the greatness of his courses head into the land of the delusional.<\/p>\n Reilly isn\u2019t just claiming all this; he\u2019s clearly done the spadework to unearth all his anecdotes with many an interview with caddies, pros and others, and he, well, liberally quotes them all. His constant question is why does Trump do all this? He\u2019s actually a decent golfer; he doesn\u2019t need to cheat. Some of his golf courses are indeed very good; he doesn\u2019t need to gild the lily.<\/p>\n The answer appears to be, as Reilly often notes, that it\u2019s all about winning, no matter the cost.<\/p>\n Many of those quoted in the book who have played with Trump say it\u2019s actually a lot of fun. So is Reilly\u2019s book. But like some of the players, one is likely to be shaking one\u2019s head in stupefaction once it\u2019s all over. Indeed, in a final chapter Reilly waxes wroth over the damage he feels Trump is inflicting on the character of golf.<\/p>\n Golfers know something about integrity. And if you\u2019ll cheat at golf, Reilly reasonably surmises, you carry a stain that can extend to any endeavor you may be elected to undertake.<\/p>\n <<<>>><\/p>\n Jenkins shows up in another epigraph in Reilly\u2019s book, and the former was clearly a model and a mentor to the latter, as he was to many other writers in the wake he churned.<\/p>\n As Reilly tweeted after the news emerged that Jenkins had passed away at age 90: \u201cSo long to the great Dan Jenkins, the funniest sumbitch to ever call hisself a sportswriter. There’ll never be another.\u201d<\/p>\n Jenkins was a Trump supporter, but I have the feeling he would have, at least, respected Reilly\u2019s effort. I reviewed only one Jenkins book, His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir<\/a>, the title of which was a play on words of two of his best-selling football novels, Semi-Tough<\/em> and Life Its Ownself<\/em>.<\/p>\n But in terms of golf writing, Jenkins had few peers, especially when it came to covering, and attending majors. I met him at the 2009 U.S. Open in Bethpage. Jenkins had taken to social media by that point, and was churning out mostly hilarious tweets, often, it seemed, at the expense of Sergio Garcia. Who surely deserved it.<\/p>\n *This piece first appeared, in somewhat different form, in the April-May 2019 issue of<\/em> Golf Oklahoma<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Commander](\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2019\/05\/Commander-in-Cheat-jpeg.jpg\")
<\/a>They go pretty well for the reader, although reactions may vary depending upon one\u2019s political stance. Those who have had quite enough of Trump will have their worst fears confirmed while laughing their heads off.<\/p>\n
\n> Of the 18 Club Championships Trump claims to have won, Reilly found 16 of them to be false, two unlikely, none confirmable.
\n> While he\u2019s probably a legitimate 9 or 10 handicap, Trump claims to carry a 2.8. Reilly claims, \u201cIf Trump is a 2.8, Queen Elizabeth is a pole vaulter.\u201d
\n> Trump doesn\u2019t post all his scores anyway.
\n> His scores are suspect in any case, since Trump is an inveterate cheat while playing. He knocks balls out of the rough onto fairways, tosses balls out of bunkers, and has been known to toss opponents\u2019 balls into bunkers. And he routinely rakes away putts of six feet or more.
\n> He never walks, always rides, and drives his cart right onto the greens. (Reilly: \u201cDriving your cart on the green is like hanging your laundry in the Sistine Chapel.\u201d)<\/p>\n<\/a>\n<\/a>There\u2019s little I need to add at this point to the tributes that flowed forth in praise of the late Dan Jenkins, who passed away on March 7, except to remove my cap. Jenkins is one of three writers (with Bernard Darwin and Herbert Warren Wind) in the Golf Hall of Fame, and as he said at his induction, the only one to arrive vertically.<\/p>\n<\/a>The final tally\u201468 Masters, 63 U.S. Opens, 45 Open Championships and 56 PGA Championships\u2014232 in all, to save you the addition. And a lot of fine words about the dogged victims of inexorable fate.<\/p>\n