It didn’t take long for the thinly veiled political undertones surrounding the LIV Golf Tournament at Donald Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club to come to the fore on Saturday afternoon.
Several hundred spectators who filled the grandstand behind the first tee erupted in cheers of “Four more years!” which echoed across the grounds as the former US president appeared in a white polo shirt and a red Make America Great Again hat to watch the lead band by Henrik Stenson, Patrick Reid and Fachara Hongwatmai, who started their second round after the horn sent by the shotgun started at one fifteen.
A few meters away, Greg Norman, the chief executive and face of the controversial Saudi-funded tour, raised the roof with an embarrassed smile, embracing the raucous atmosphere, although it was cleverly avoided by the official broadcast, which was streamed on YouTube to around 70,000 viewers in the absence of a TV deal. And that was before a surprise appearance by Marjorie Taylor Green, the far-right Republican congresswoman and self-proclaimed Christian nationalist from Georgia.
If day one was the Diet Maga Rally, this was the Maga Classic. The crowds for Saturday’s second round of the non-stop 54-hole tournament were slightly larger and certainly noisier than Friday’s opening session, when no more than 2,000 spectators descended on Trump National’s 500-acre grounds in this central rural a town in New Jersey 45 miles west of New York. The previously deserted grandstands and grassy hills along the fairway were filled with fans as the middle of the $25 million tournament played out under pristine blue skies and comfortable temperatures of 88F (31C).
Stenson, the overnight overall leader fresh off his ouster as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain last week, fired a two-under par 69 to extend his lead over the field to nine strokes, three strokes better than Dustin Johnson and four ahead of Patrick Reed, Carlos Ortiz and Taylor Gooch.
But it was the former US president who once again absorbed the spotlight, even as a star-studded field of PGA Tour defectors took a simultaneous lap around the 7,591-yard Old Course. A standing crowd of several hundred supporters spent the afternoon lined up outside the enclosed terrace by the 16th tee, where Trump played the second half of the day’s play. Many wore shirts branded with familiar slogans: Let’s Go Brandon; Do I Still Miss You?; Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump.
Fans watch play on the 10th green from a distance in Bedminster. Photo: Mike Stobe/LIV Golf/Getty Images
Their patience was rewarded when he finally emerged from the fishbowl with maddened roars for an impromptu rendition of “God Bless America” and was joined by Taylor Green, the conservative firebrand who coolly lined up for a spot on Trump’s ticket for 2024 The atmosphere was much calmer a few hundred yards behind the 514-yard, par-five first tee, where a plaque and bouquet of white flowers marked the freshly turned dirt plot where Ivana Trump, the former president’s first wife, was buried this week .
Trump’s illegal use of the presidential seal at his Bedminster club has come under fire from ethics watchers, but many of the other telltale signs of his tenure in the White House fall on the right side of federal law. Anyone who left their Maga hat at home can pick one up at the pro shop: unsigned for $35, autographed for $500. The same goes for copies of his picture memoir, Our Journey Together, which cost $75.
Critics have accused the Saudi government of using their reported $2 billion investment in LIV Golf to “wash out of the sport” the kingdom’s abhorrent record on human rights, alleged links to the 9/11 attacks, a heavy crackdown on women’s rights and LGBTQ+ and the 2018 assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
But while Washington’s chatterbox spent the week pondering whether Trump’s turn to a regime he once blamed for a role in 9/11 would cost him politically, Saturday’s scenes appeared to put the question to rest — with golf firmly in the backseat.
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