Throughout my career as a professional golfer on the PGA Tour and its Senior/Champions Tour, I occasionally would meet golfers who would say to me, “You pros get to play with better equipment than we amateurs do.” They meant that the manufacturers of golf clubs and golf balls–such as Spalding, Wilson, MacGregor, Titleist, and nowadays also Callaway, Nike, and PING–make special clubs and balls for the Touring pros that are not sold to public, and this pro equipment is superior to the amateur equipment.
What always amazed me about this was that these golfers were so certain that manufacturers made us Touring pros superior equipment, yet they never asked me if it was true. Here, I’m the pro, and many us endorse some manufacturer’s equipment and are paid by them to play it, yet these amateurs think they know. They would just tell me this as a mater of fact. Every time it happened, I though it revealed something about their personalities. That is, they were gullible people who easily believed falsehoods without having any evidence that those beliefs were true. And they wouldn’t ask the pro.
All golfers listen up! Golf club manufacturers DO NOT make golf clubs for Touring pros that hit the ball better than clubs that any golfers buy in golf shops, nor do golf ball companies make golf balls for Touring pros that fly straighter and farther than those sold in retail stores anywhere.
In fact, the U.S.G.A. and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club in UK–the two golf associations that govern rules for golf competitions in the whole world, to which those competitions subscribe, and establish all regulations regarding the construction of golf clubs and golf balls that are so-called “legal,” actually called “U.S.G.A approved”–do not allow equipment manufacturers to make clubs and balls that exceed certain regulated tolerances that can be used in golf competitions that resort to the approval of these governing bodies. That is something that the know-it-amateurs–who think manufacturers make superior equipment for Touring pros–never think about.
The same kind of thing is happening right now in this U.S. presidential election. There is less than three weeks left until election day on November 8. Republican nominee Donald Trump spouts off all kinds of falsehoods without evidence to prove them, and people by the tens of million throughly believe him. He’s just like those amateur golfers; Trump doesn’t have evidence to back up what he’s saying. And he sure would not appeal to experts, just like these amateur golfers talking to me, the Touring pro. In fact, Donald Trump is not a stats guy at all.
Since the voter polls have been indicating that Donald Trump has been losing to Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton, Trump has been saying the polls are false. “I don’t believe the polls,” The Donald says. Notice that when he makes such allegations, he often repeats himself two or perhaps three times. That is a marketing tool. The more you repeat something the more people may believe you.
And Trump might preface his remark by saying, “I’ve got to tell you, folks.” Now, I realize this cliche is getting to be a standard used in our conversation here in the U.S. with some people. But it is a deceptive statement intended to indicate the person saying it is an authority who is revealing something hidden from people.
Trump now has been saying, “This election is rigged.” He means that the Democratic party and media are in cahoots to falsify election results. He doesn’t appeal to the many experts who run elections in states.
Trump also has been saying, “The media is corrupt.” He says it is “poisoning” us. No, it’s Donald Trump who is corrupt and full of poisoning rhetoric. He undermines our precious democratic institutions in the USA that are guaranteed by our Constitution: freedom of the press and having relatively clean elections.
Donald Trump is a big phony, a narcissistic baffoon who is deceiving a lot of Americans. And I’m not going to say, “I’ve got to tell you, folks,” or repeat it two or three times.
At least this worst presidential election in my lifetime will be over with November 8th. But when Donald Trump loses that day, as it appears he is going to do, will we have heard the last of his lies? I don’t think so. Right now, it looks like he is preparing to own a television network where he will continue injecting his poison.
All of this Trump rhetoric undermining our U.S. institutions shows he’s a bad loser. President Obama rightly said so in a speech this week.
Golf has always been called “the gentlemen’s game.” If golfers act in this sport like Donald Trump is acting in this election by being a bad loser, golfers don’t play golf with that person anymore. Somehow, when this election is over and Trump has lost as it seems is going to, the U.S. as a whole needs to sideline Donald Trump. Yet this is a free country, and it’s not going to happen. I think we’re stuck with Donald Trump here in the USA, so that he’s not going to go live in Russia to praise Vladimir Putin.
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