Longtime sports writer says Trump ‘cheats at the highest level’ at golf

A former Sports Illustrated and ESPN writer in a new book paints President Trump as a serial cheater on the golf course, saying he “cheats at the highest level.”

Rick Reilly includes accounts from dozens of people who have played with Trump, including professional golfers, about Trump’s cheating in “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.”

“To say ‘Donald Trump cheats’ is like saying ‘Michael Phelps swims,'” Reilly writes, according to the New York Post.

“He cheats at the highest level. He cheats when people are watching and he cheats when they aren’t. He cheats whether you like it or not. He cheats because that’s how he plays golf … if you’re playing golf with him, he’s going to cheat,” Riley writes. 

{mosads}Reilly, who often criticizes Trump on Twitter, also addresses Trump’s claim of a 2.8 handicap, writing, “If Trump is a 2.8, Queen Elizabeth is a pole vaulter.”

Former ESPN football announcer Mike Tirico relayed a story to Reilly about playing with Trump, saying Trump’s caddy told him that Trump cheated by throwing Tirico’s ball, which was initially 10 feet from the hole, about 50 feet away from the hole into a bunker.

And actor Samuel L. Jackson is quoted in the book as saying, “We clearly saw him hook a ball into a lake at Trump National [Bedminster, New Jersey], and his caddy told him he found it!”

The book also details Trump allegedly exaggerating or creating facts and figures about his golf courses. According to the Post, Reilly writes that Trump’s course at Bedminster boasts a plaque with a quote from course architect Tom Fazio that says “This is the best design I’ve ever done.”

Fazio told Reilly, “I don’t believe I said it exactly like that.”

Earlier this month, it was reported that Trump was named co-champion of a tournament he didn’t play in. 

LPGA Tour golfer Suzann Pettersen, who is friends with Trump, said earlier this year that the president “cheats like hell,” telling a Norwegian newspaper, “I’m pretty sure he pays his caddie well.”