Trump basically calls himself the Steph Curry of golf, experts say

Outside the golf world, Trump’s impressive claim went largely unnoticed. Many may not know what a “scratch player” is, and Trump is known for reaching for hyperbole, either behind the podium or on the fairway.

In response to a media inquiry from Business Insider, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung suggested that anyone who doubts the former president’s golf skills is “jealous.”

Here are some analogies to help unpack Trump’s claims.

Golf’s Steph Curry?

Trump claims that at age 78, he he easily beats highly skilled players aged 55 to 65 or older in competitions hosted at his club, so he has to compete with younger players who are also highly skilled.

A “scratch” golfer means that a player gets the ball inside the tee in or under the set number of strokes dictated by the golf course. For example, an 18-hole course with a par of 72 means a player should finish the course in or under 72 strokes.

There is more technicality when taking into account a player’s “handicap,” which Trump also claims is “so low.” Still, according to sports experts, the former president is essentially saying he’s good — very good — maybe even impossibly good.

“To say it’s hard to believe is an understatement,” Val Martinez, who founded an online sports betting community for women, told BI. “If true, that would mean Donald Trump is one of the best amateur golfers in the country.”

“It’s like pretending you can outplay Steph Curry and outplay LeBron James in the same game,” Martinez said.

She offered another analogy: “It’s like saying you can routinely freeze from the free throw line with the same success rate as Michael Jordan.”

Bryant Sharifi, head performance coach at Perform for Golf in San Francisco, agreed.

“At 78, it’s like being in a three-point shooting contest and beating a bunch of skilled players,” Sharifi added.

“It’s a very, very impressive feat to do,” Sharifi said of Trump’s claim.

A champion in his own right

To be fair, that doesn’t mean the former president is an abysmal golfer. He certainly plays a lot.

In a YouTube video that was filmed before his assassination attempt, Trump and LIV Golf pro Bryson DeChambeau attempted to “break 50,” or complete an 18-hole course in under 50 shots — an incredibly challenging task .

The pair couldn’t accomplish the feat, but DeChambeau was still impressed.

“His driver swing is the most repeatable thing I’ve ever seen,” DeChambeau told Golf.com. “I wish mine was this repeatable. Indeed, it is.”

Mark Broadie, a mathematician at Columbia Business School who has written a book on golf and has been billed as “The Golf Guru,” told BI in an email that judging by the video, Trump is a decent player.

“From this, it looks like Trump is a good golfer and could have been a 5 handicap a few years ago,” Broadie said, meaning Trump’s average score from previous rounds of golf would be could be five shots above normal.

A 2019 study by the United States Golf Association and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews found that a golfer with a handicap of less than six would drive the ball an average distance of about 240 yards. That’s far.

“But if (Trump) drives the ball a maximum of 190 or 200 yards (as some of the shots in Bryson’s video indicate), he would have little chance against a scratch golfer playing from the same tees,” Broadie added in the e- mail.

Sportswriter Rick Reilly, who played golf with Trump and wrote a book in 2019 detailing how the former president consistently cheated the game, was less generous on social media.

“Yes. Any half decent player could crush him with one thing: a rules official,” Reilly wrote on X, responding to a video of Trump claiming to have beaten 21 scratch players.

In another post, he added: “FYI, Trump used to show off his golf game in public. He was playing on NBC’s Tahoe Celebrity Tour + all 3 times he turned out to be wild…average”.

Reilly could not be reached for comment.

The Wilmington Star-News reported in 2004 that Trump finished 56th out of 80 players for the American Century Championship hosted in South Lake Tahoe. According to the American Century Championship, Trump finished 62nd in 2006.