Donald Trump is yet to congratulate Scottie Scheffler on his PGA Championship win after the current world number one secured the third major of his career on Sunday.
The 28-year-oldposted a level-par 71 on the final day of play to ensure he finished ahead of Jon Rahm and fellow countryman Bryson DeChambeau, giving a timely reminder of why he is considered the best player in the world after securing back-to-back victories on the PGA Tour. Just a fortnight earlier, Scheffler had claimed his first win of the year at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson.
Scheffler had entered the final round at Quail Hollow with a three-shot lead over the rest of the field and, while a sluggish start to the day offered the chasing pack a glimmer of hope, there was only ever going to be one winner. As for Masters winner Rory McIlroy, it was a weekend to forget as he recorded a disappointing three-over par, marking his poorest performance since 2016.
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Unlike Scheffler, however, the Northern Irishman received immediate congratulations from President Trump following his major success at Augusta last month as he became the sixth golfer ever to capture the coveted Grand Slam.
“I have to congratulate Rory,” Trump told a reporter aboard Air Force One when asked if he watched The Masters. “That took tremendous courage. He was having a hard time, but it showed great guts and stamina, and courage.
“People have no idea how tough that is. He came back. It’s better for him that it happened that way because that showed real courage to have come back from what could’ve been a tragedy – it was amazing.”
Trump, however, has remained silent since Scheffler’s PGA Championship victory. The 78-year-old hasn’t actually posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) account since Saturday, when he shared a video of his recent visit to the UAE as part of his wider visit to the Middle East last week.
Given his obsession with golf and Scheffler’s American background, it is perhaps surprising that Trump hasn’t publicly congratulated him on his latest win, especially as it’s such a big one.
Just last month, Trump named Scheffler as one of his favorites to win the Masters, even branding him as a “friend”. When asked if there’s a specific player that he’s rooting for to secure the green jacket, he responded: “They’re all friends of mine. They have some great ones. Scottie Scheffler’s great. Bryson [DeChambeau] is great. Justin Rose, they’re all friends of mine.”
It came not long after PGA Tour star and Scheffler’s best friend, Sam Burns, was left shocked by Trump’s openness during their round of golf together. The 28-year-old admitted playing with the president was an eye-opening experience, with virtually no subject off-limits.
“He’s exactly how you’d think he would be. He’s exactly what you see on TV, brutally honest. He’s very open, you can pretty much ask him anything,” Burns told the GOLF’s subpar show. “And he loves golf. He has some really funny stories, so it’s pretty cool to listen to. I asked him some stuff. I wasn’t sure if he would answer or not, but he did.”
With regards to Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East, talks surrounding a LIV Golf deal were expected to be “on his agenda”, having become somewhat of a middleman for a potential merger between LIV and the PGA.
However, after a $1.5 billion investment offer from the Saudi-backed league was rejected at the start of last month, with the PGA Tour deeming the demands to be unacceptable, Trump was believed to have been tasked with informing Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that any deal between the PGA Tour and PIF will bring an end to LIV Golf.
UFC fighter Conor McGregor and race car driver Danica Patrick were spotted in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol where there is an overflow room set up, according to Punchbowl reporter Melanie Zanona.
Trump’s inauguration this year is much more star-studded than his 2017 inauguration. The president-elect has garnered more support from celebrities, billionaires and executives than he did his first time in office, when his inauguration was marked by his team reportedly struggling to find performers. Robert Thompson, a professor of pop culture at Syracuse University, told the Associated Press that the celebrities supporting Trump are “still a small subset of the entire universe of what we call celebrity,” but that it’s an indication that “there may not be that distinct division we saw before.” Last week, Trump named three of his Hollywood supporters—Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone—as special ambassadors to the area, calling it a “great but very troubled place” and saying they would work as his “eyes and ears” on the ground in pursuit of bringing back “The Golden Age of Hollywood!”