A Washington Post contributing columnist took aim at President Donald Trump's golf record on Monday, arguing that the president's self-reported tournament victories owe more to accommodating caddies than to genuine skill.

Rick Reilly, a veteran sportswriter who spent decades covering golf for Sports Illustrated and ESPN, wrote that Trump's effusive praise of his own game has left him deeply skeptical of the player-in-chief's abilities.

"You people make me sick," Reilly quipped. "Just because President Donald Trump is 80 years old with a pancake-flat golf swing and the chipping skills of Edward Scissorhands, you refuse to believe he could shoot a 70 and hog two trophies a couple of weeks ago at his Bedminster course in New Jersey."

Trump has repeatedly touted his prowess on the green, but Reilly cast doubt on the record. "Fast forward to 2024, and by my unofficial Trump Brag count, he had 26," Reilly wrote in his Washington Post column. "That's eight championships in 11 years. Which is Tiger Woods-like, except no objective witness would call me back to vouch that any of them were legit. Not the head pro, not the guys he played with, not any of his hardworking caddies, who drop balls for him the way the Easter Bunny drops eggs for toddlers."

According to Reilly, the president's caddies play an active role in producing those results. "Well, actually, what Trump has is caddies waiting out ahead on the course, fluffing up his lies, throwing his balls out of bunkers and picking up eight-foot putts they've decided he doesn't need to make," Reilly wrote. "I talked to an ex-caddy of his, who said, 'Everybody knows the deal. He has to win the tournament and shoot the lowest score. It's your job to make sure.'"

The account is familiar ground for Reilly, whose 2019 book "Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump" catalogued similar claims from caddies and playing partners. Trump's golf has drawn recurring press attention during his time in office, both for the scale of his self-reported trophy count and for the frequency with which he plays at courses he owns, from Bedminster in New Jersey to his clubs in Florida.

Trump, Reilly noted, claims 43 career wins and, in the columnist's telling, shows no sign of slowing down.

"The guy might be right," Reilly added. "Heck, by Christmas, it could be 50. By April, he might have won the Masters. After all, at 80 years old, Trump is playing not only the best golf of his life, but the best amateur golf in the history of the sport."

Source: Raw Story