Golf-mad Trump is cancelled at Augusta – that has got to hurt

AUGUSTA NATIONAL — A week ago, after upending the markets and global trading conventions with his tariff attack, Donald Trump rolled into Trump Doral, the course he owns in Miami, to have dinner with the LIV Golf hierarchy, players and guests before the start of the tournament, one of three LIV events at courses owned by the president.Trump’s golfing infatuation is arguably more entrenched than Dwight Eisenhower’s, who served two terms as president from 1953 to 1961.In that time Ike is said to have played an estimated 800 rounds of golf.

That’s twice a week by my estimation, many of those at Augusta National, where he was a member and where his campaign for the presidency garnered important support from influential fellow members.if(window.adverts) { window.



adverts.addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }Given the club’s historic connection with the office of Potus, and Trump’s infatuation with the sport, you might have thought that The Donald and Augusta might be acquainted in some way, if not formally as a member then as a guest with an open invitation to play whenever he has a slot in the diary.#color-context-related-article-3631154 {--inews-color-primary: #8BC419;--inews-color-secondary: #F6FBED;--inews-color-tertiary: #8BC419;} Read Next square GOLF Golf is acting like Angel Cabrera’s crimes against women never happenedRead MoreOne of the more interesting features of this Master’s week, a period in which the turbo turmoil Trump unleashed wiped trillions from the bank accounts of America’s most wealthy, has been the emphatic serenity about Augusta National, not even a ripple of turbulence and nil mention of Trump, not even in passing.

It’s like the very idea of Trump and his presidency is just not happening, or if it is, it will pass.You wonder how someone like Trump might view the green-jacketed indifference. Though his presidency is predicated on his blue-collar base, the association is merely transactional.

By preference, background, habit and milieu, if not temperament, Trump is every bit as elite as those he disdains in the execution of power. Augusta membership would represent for him the ultimate validation, conferring upon him status a level above that of the Oval Office. But he is not elite enough for Augusta.

Nope, and that has got to hurt.if(window.adverts) { window.

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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }Though there are some references to Trump having visited Augusta National in his early days as a New York property magnate, there is nil confirmation of it here, no formal recognition of his having set foot on the property. That said, there is very little known about anything to do with the club’s operational activity, no record of its exclusive membership or its vast balance sheet.

Donald Trump with LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman (Photo: Getty)The general understanding is that membership is limited to 300, all typically wealthy individuals of power and influence, the very cohort in fact that was hit hardest by Trump’s tariff volcano. Yet at a reception on Tuesday evening in the palatial media building, there was no sense of the chaos raging outside its doors.For journalists watching their pensions disappear Trump knocked the New York Yankees off the agenda.

But for those dotted about the terrace in green jackets it was not even a topic of polite conversation, nothing, nada, nil. The patrons did not seem overly perturbed either, waiting in lines 40 minutes long to spend thousands on merch in the Masters shop.One patron I spoke to about Trump-Ageddon, from Pittsburgh, was apathy itself.

“Look around you,” he said, “what do you see? It’s not so bad, right?” He meant America, his America. This was not his first visit to Augusta. He was personable and polite, married 40 years, he said.

“I’m worth more dead than alive,” he joked, “my wife knows that too.”Another patron resembled a pack horse so much merchandise was he carrying, heaps of golf apparel and paraphernalia stuffed into bags and threaded through his belt loops.#color-context-related-article-3635856 {--inews-color-primary: #8BC419;--inews-color-secondary: #F6FBED;--inews-color-tertiary: #8BC419;} Read Next square GOLF Amateur golfer in hot water after urinating in creek at the MastersRead MoreSales are estimated at $70m dollars for the week.

It is reasonable to assume that the economic profile of ticket holders here differs significantly from the 55 million Americans, half the private sector workforce, who have no retirement provision, according to the American Society of Retired Persons policy institute.They are not Trump people in other words, or if they are, they keep their Maga tendencies to themselves. In 2012 golf commentator and writer Geoff Shackelford ran a story about Trump joining the membership of Augusta National.

It was 1 April. That idea is so off the scale only an April Fool would believe it.if(window.

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adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }Augusta National is old money, it represents a stately vision of America, a place that exists, like Plato’s realms, only as an abstraction.

Outwardly, it wears its wealth and power responsibly, it values honesty, integrity, manners. Yes, there are all sorts of contradictions associated with great wealth, secrecy and altruism, but the benevolence is real for those who benefit from the club’s many charitable, educational and community investments.And, importantly, in this era of era of wild instability, Augusta National stands as a bulwark against Trump’s economic and cultural vandalism.

The club is not only saying no to him, it has cancelled him. In this arcadian corner of America, at least, Trump does not exist..