In Golf in the Kingdom, a classic sports book about adventures on a mystical Scottish links course – and the spiritual growth that can take place there – the narrator’s ball ends up buried in a gorse bush.
His appeal to the local pro/guru he is with to drop the ball clear of the thorns is met with a brusque: “Play it like it lies. It’ll come out.” The ball stays put, but the ordeal leads to life lessons being learned.
The principle of playing the ball as it lies is a central one in golf – rule 9 according to the world’s two main governing bodies, the R&A and the United States Golf Association (USGA).
So it is not surprising that eyebrows have been raised across the world at an apparent loose interpretation of the principle by Donald Trump while golfing in Scotland. A viral clip appears to show that as Trump approaches a bunker, an aide discreetly drops a ball just outside the sand trap. Trump springs from his buggy, club in hand and heads toward the ball, apparently eager to strike it from this friendly spot.
Trump caught cheating at golf. Watch the guy in the red vest toss a ball behind him.pic.twitter.com/DxIQrUW7MC
— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) July 27, 2025
The Stop Trump Coalition, which demonstrated against the US president in Scotland, leapt on the moment and accused him of foul play. A spokesperson said: “Cheating at golf is a long way from Trump’s worst crime – but it does show the problem. Instead of calling it out, the powerful play along. His approach to golf is the same as his approach to business – and to politics.”
Most golf experts agree it is going too far to conclude that Trump really was cheating. The R&A did not want to get drawn in, but a source who works with the governing body said Trump could have argued he was practising and wanted to hit from a particular spot or that he was just playing casually.
But the problem is that it was not a good look for a sport that is working hard to appeal to a wider, younger audience.
Andrew Cotter, the golf commentator and presenter of the UK podcast The Chipping Forecast, said the context of what happened was not clear but concluded it looked “very, very bad”. For Cotter, the issue was the apparently secretive nature of the ball being dropped from the aide’s hand, which he described on the show as “dodgy looking” and a “bit of a covert operation”.
The award-winning American sportswriter Rick Reilly took to X to wryly state: “Well I’m just personally very disappointed in him.”
Reilly is the author of the New York Times bestseller Commander in Cheat, which examines Trump’s claims about his abilities and his success in the game. In the book, Reilly writes: “He fudges and foozles and fluffs” and alleges Trump is known as Pelé – after the Brazilian footballer – at one great US club because he kicks the ball back on to the fairway so often.
Another US writer, Tom Nichols, a specialist in international security at the Atlantic, joined in, comparing the episode to a scene in Goldfinger when a henchman drops a ball down his trouser leg for the titular villain during his match against Sean Connery’s James Bond, but added that his behaviour on the golf course was not “nearly the worst thing” about the president.
The video of Trump’s caddy doing an Oddjob Slazenger drop isn’t a big deal; cheating at golf isn’t nearly the worst thing about Trump.
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) July 27, 2025
But watching the cult of personality try to explain it away is really some creepy North Korean level stuff.🙂
If a palate cleanser from all this was needed, a good place was Porthcawl on the south coast of Wales, where the Women’s Open is being played. One of the UK’s great golfers, Dame Laura Davies, made it clear during a Q&A for fans at the event that playing the game the right way remained vital, saying golf was one of the few sports in which competitors refereed themselves.
She cited the recent example of the American golfer Justin Thomas calling a penalty on himself in an event in South Carolina when he – and only he – noticed that his ball had moved and drew attention to it. Davies said: “No golfer ever wants to be associated with getting away with something.”
Liz Gray, who described herself as a “high handicapper” there to pick up tips from the world’s best female golfers, said: “I hated the clip. Golf is trying to shake off its fusty image and Trump doesn’t help.”
A coach encouraging children to try their hand at the sport in the festival village said young people were being attracted to golf by YouTubers such as the US-based Good Good crew. “I hope these kids don’t see that Trump video,” the coach said.
Time and again, the fans at Porthcawl made the point that the game is hard – but you must not cut corners to make it easier.
As the great American golfer Bobby Jones put it: “Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots – but you have to play the ball where it lies.”
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