The people of the United States are not the only ones faced with a critical decision about Donald Trump next month. So is the USGA.
With Trump’s never ending monologue of disparaging women the USGA has to be contemplating the effect Trump, whether President or not, will have on their 2017 U.S. Women’s Open.
2016 winner Brittany Lang
The Open is scheduled for Trump’s National Golf Course in Bedminster, N.J. next July. As each day brings more and more controversy surrounding Trump and his dealings, or mis-dealings with women over the years the USGA needs to step up.
The USGA trumpets that they are custodians of the game and their mission is to preserve the integrity of the game. It’s now time they show some of that integrity and separate themselves from Trump whose history with women is deteriorating daily.
It must be moved. A Trump golf course, no matter how beautiful and centrally located it might be, cannot play host to an event that is the crown jewel of a women’s sport, with competitors from around the world — not after all the awful things Trump has said about minorities, immigrants and women, culminating in the lewd and disgusting video that was made public last Friday.
It doesn’t matter that Trump’s courses have hosted men’s and women’s golf tournaments in the past. That was then. This is now. His comments about women have been repulsive throughout his presidential campaign, but last week’s video took them to a new low while giving them a prominence similar to what the Ray Rice elevator video gave to the issue of domestic violence two years ago.
It doesn’t matter that the U.S. Women’s Open is only nine months away. It doesn’t matter how much planning has already gone into the event. It doesn’t matter how many tickets and sponsorships have been sold and would need to be refunded.
The USGA is not just another business running another golf tournament. It is the national governing body for golf in this nation, with a mission to look out for the best interests of boys and girls and men and women in a game that millions love. The USGA has focused particular and admirable attention the past few years on the game’s decades-long discrimination against women and girls, and it has made a special effort to encourage them to take up the game.
So, how can there be any doubt about what the USGA must do? It must dump Trump National and find another location.
Now, I had written here earlier that Trump was good for golf but this was long before his record on women had come to light. And I was hoping his obnoxious self could be contained in the world of golf and he had not yet decided to try and be the leader of the free world. He was one of the few men spending money in the game.
But even that has changed. His courses in Scotland have lost millions the past year and he has become persona non grata in Scotland as his bullying tactics have made enemies of many who had favored his course building.
I commend Brennan for taking the USGA to task and I am hoping that Mike Davis and crew are making behind the scene plans to move to another site.
It can’t be their thinking that it would be acceptable to have the Open there whether Trump is the president or not.
They need to put their politics and Trump’s aside and prove that their guardianship of the game isn’t just a tag line.
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