Donald Trump has claimed to have hit a hole-in-one at his Florida golf course while playing with a former world No. 1 Ernie Els.
The former president was released a long statement about the shot, which is said to have happened on Saturday, late Monday.
Earlier, a federal judge said Trump likely committed crimes while attempting to overturn his election loss to Joe Biden. Also on Monday, the Jan. 6 House Committee recommended criminal contempt charges against two aides, Dan Scavino and Peter Navarro.
If the hole-in-one statement that follows changes the conversation, it wasn’t Trump’s first such move.
It was marginally less dramatic than his move last week, however, when a prosecutor, who stepped down from an investigation into Trump’s business affairs, said he believed the former president had committed “numerous” crimes.
Trump followed that up with a 108-page lawsuit alleging a grand conspiracy to delegitimize his presidency led by Hillary Clinton.
In his statement Monday, Trump said: “A lot of people ask, so I’ll give it to you now, it’s 100% true. I made a hole-in while playing with legendary golfer Ernie Els, winner of four majors and about 72 other tournaments around the world, Senior US Open winner Gene Sauers, Ken Duke and Mike Goodes, both award-winning tour players -a.”
Trump said he scored his hole-in-one on the par-3 7 at Trump International, West Palm Beach. He said there was both a “light wind” and a “fairly strong wind” when he hit a five-iron. The ball, he said, “bounced twice and then clattered into the hole.
“These great Tour players noticed it before me because their eyesight is a little better, but just on that one hole their swing wasn’t as good.”
A video accompanied the statement. It showed Trump getting a ball out of the hole, but not the shot he said got it there.
Regarding Trump’s status as the 45th President, Els tweeted: “Great shot on Saturday 45! It’s fun to watch the ball roll into the hole-in-one.”
It has been widely reported that Trump cheats at golf. In 2019, golf author Rick Reilly published a book, Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.
In addition to reporting on routine rule-breaking with sources like PGA Tour pro Brad Faxon and actor Samuel L Jackson, Reilly also wrote about Trump’s habit of claiming dubious performances.
“Donald Trump’s boast of winning 18 club championships,” Reilly wrote, “is a lie so over the top crazy that it loses all credence among golfers the moment it comes out of his mouth.”
Reilly also wrote that Trump International in West Palm Beach, Fla., now the site of Trump’s claimed hole-in-one, “has a plaque on the wall listing all the men who have won the men’s club championship.” Trump shows up three times: 1999, 2001 and 2009. But wait a minute. The course wasn’t even open in 1999.”
Reilly also looked into Trump’s claim of having a 2.8 handicap. The man widely considered the greatest golfer of all time, Jack Nicklaus, plays 3.4. In Reilly’s words, “If Trump is a 2.8, Queen Elizabeth is a pole vaulter.”
On Monday, Trump’s hole-in-one claim was met with widespread disbelief – and many comparisons to the famous story of Kim Jong-il, a North Korean dictator who claimed to have hit 11 hole-in-ones in his first round.
In response to Trump’s statement, Washington Post reporter Philip Bump spoke for many.
“After almost seven years in the public eye,” Bump wrote, “Donald Trump has somehow managed to outdo Donald Trump himself.”