- President Donald Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club has been stripped of its right to host the 2022 PGA Championship, one of golf’s four major tournaments.
- The PGA of America said it could no longer host the tournament at a Trump property after the president incited what became a violent insurrection at the US Capitol.
- It is not the first time Trump’s words and actions have cost him the chance of hosting a golf major.
- In 2015, when Trump was a presidential hopeful, his Scottish course, Trump Turnberry, lost the chance to host the British Open over his disparaging comments about Mexicans.
- The R&A effectively confirmed Monday that it won’t host the Open at Turnberry while Trump’s name is over the door.
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Late Sunday night, the PGA of America announced that it no longer planned to host the 2022 PGA Championship at President Donald Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club following the events at the US Capitol last Wednesday.
“Our feeling was given the tragic events of Wednesday that we could no longer hold it at Bedminster,” PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said, referring to Trump’s incitement of what turned into a riot at the US Capitol by a mob of the president’s supporters.
Trump-owned courses have held numerous professional events, including frequent stops on the PGA Tour as well as majors in both the LPGA and senior tours.
But they have never hosted one of golf’s four men’s major championships.
Trump has long been known to desire a men’s major be held at one of his 15 golf properties, and he looked set to achieve that aim with the 2022 PGA Championship, generally considered the least prestigious major.
His role in the violent insurrection at the Capitol last week — which led to the deaths of at least five people — cost him that chance.
It is not, however, the first time Trump’s words or actions have cost his resorts the opportunity to host a major.
In 2015, when Trump was a presidential hopeful, golfing authorities in the UK effectively blacklisted his course in Scotland — Trump Turnberry — from hosting the British Open, the most prestigious golfing event held outside the US.
According to a report from The Independent on Sunday at the time, the Royal & Ancient — British golf’s governing body — decided that no course bearing Trump’s name could host the British Open after Trump made disparaging remarks about numerous ethnic and religious groups. Those comments included referring to Mexicans as “criminals” and “rapists.”
The Independent reported that authorities “privately decided that his reputation is now so toxic that the newly renamed Trump Turnberry can no longer host the game’s most prestigious tournament.”
The R&A effectively confirmed that it won’t ever host the Open at Turnberry while Trump’s name is above the door, issuing a statement that while it did not use Trump’s name, made very clear that it was about him.
The full statement, attributed to Chief Executive Martin Slumbers, can be seen below:
“We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future. We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.”
David Cannon/Getty Images
Turnberry had been scheduled to host the British Open in 2020 before that decision, the newspaper reported. That tournament was ultimately awarded to Royal St. George’s, on England’s southeastern coast, but did not go ahead because of the coronavirus pandemic.
After losing out to Royal St. George’s, Trump is said to have tried again to secure the British Open for Turnberry, in 2018 reportedly pushing Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the UK, to lobby the British government to bring the tournament to Trump’s resort in the near future.
Those efforts were unsuccessful, and The New York Times said the incident left US diplomats in Britain, including Deputy Ambassador Lewis Lukens, “deeply unsettled.”
Turnberry has hosted the British Open four times, including in 2009, but has not been included on the rota of courses for the championship since Trump bought the property in 2014.
Last week, it was reported that Trump planned to leave the US the day before Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration and fly to Scotland to play golf at Turnberry.
Those reports were swiftly quashed, however. The White House denied the plans, and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Trump wouldn’t be welcome anyway, as visiting the resort would break Scotland’s newly imposed lockdown rules.
