Donald Trump has claimed more than 40 club championships at golf properties he owns. His latest claimed victory came on August 2 at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey, where he said he shot a 2-under 70 to win both the Senior and Super Senior divisions. Longtime sportswriter Rick Reilly has challenged Trump’s golf record for years, most notably in his 2019 book “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump“.
In a new Washington Post column published August 17, Reilly again questioned both Trump’s reported score and the growing number of championships attributed to him. Trump has denied allegations that he cheats at golf.
A new championship adds to Trump’s claimed total
Trump announced the Bedminster result on Truth Social on Aug. 2 and shared a video of what he described as the winning shot. He said he shot 70 and won both the Senior and Super Senior divisions.
Trump said he gets little time to practice because of his presidential responsibilities, but attributed the victory to his talent. The result was reported by some outlets as his claimed 43rd club championship across his golf properties.
Reilly’s latest review put his own count at 40 championships, while he noted that an observer at Bedminster counted 43. Some contemporary reports also described the Bedminster result as Trump’s claimed 43rd club championship.
Trump’s championship total remains disputed
Trump Golf operates properties in the United States and abroad, and many of Trump’s claimed championship victories have come at courses he owns or operates. Reilly has challenged how some of those titles were obtained, including championships that he says originated with opening rounds at newly established courses.
In a 2019 Vox interview, Reilly discussed Trump’s then-claim of at least 20 club championships and disputed the total. Reilly said Trump had told him that when he opened a new course, he sometimes played an opening round himself and treated it as the first club championship.
Trump’s claimed championship total continued to rise in the years that followed. In his Aug. 17, 2026, Washington Post column, Reilly put his own tally at 40, while noting that an observer at Bedminster counted 43.
Reilly says Trump described an unusual way of claiming titles
Reilly has repeatedly said Trump personally described how he handled championship claims at some newly opened golf courses. According to Reilly, Trump told him that he sometimes played the opening round by himself and then declared that round the course’s first club championship.
In a 2019 Vox interview, Reilly contrasted that practice with a conventional club championship, which he described as a competition involving club members over multiple days. He cited Trump’s account as one reason he disputes the president’s championship total.
Reilly repeated the story in his Aug. 17, 2026 Washington Post column, saying Trump had explained the practice to him while they were playing golf together. Trump’s representatives have denied Reilly’s broader allegations that Trump cheats at golf.
Trump claimed the title after missing the tournament’s first day
In January 2023, Trump claimed the Senior Club Championship at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, even though he was in North Carolina for a funeral when the first day of the 2-day competition took place.
Trump told tournament organizers that he had played a strong round at the course on Thursday, 2 days before the tournament began, and that score was used in place of his Saturday opening round. Under the Stableford scoring system used for the competition, Trump began the second day with 40 points, 5 more than the best total recorded by another player in the first round.
Trump returned for the second day and later announced that he had won the championship. Reilly cited the episode again in his Aug. 17, 2026 Washington Post column while challenging Trump’s overall championship tally.
Reilly has tracked Trump’s golf claims for decades
Reilly is a veteran sportswriter who spent many years as a Sports Illustrated columnist and later worked for ESPN. He published Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump in 2019 after years of writing about and playing golf with Trump.
In a 2019 Guardian interview, Reilly described Trump as the worst golf cheat he had encountered and argued that golf reveals aspects of a player’s character because competitors are largely responsible for following the rules themselves.
Reilly has continued tracking Trump’s championship claims. In his Aug. 17, 2026, Washington Post column, he said he had followed Trump’s golf game for 26 years and traced the growth of Trump’s claimed total number of titles over that period.
Trump was 80 when he reported shooting a 2-under 70 at Bedminster, meaning the score was 10 strokes below his age. Reilly highlighted that gap as evidence that he considered the result extraordinary and difficult to believe. Shooting below one’s age is a recognized golf achievement, particularly among older players.
Fun fact: The Associated Press reported in 2025 that Trump’s Handicap Index was 2.5, although he had not posted an official USGA round since 2021.
Reilly questions whether club competition is independent
Reilly has also questioned whether members at Trump-owned clubs would compete against the owner in the same way they would against another member. In an August 2026 social-media post, he sarcastically suggested that members allow Trump to win because no one wants to risk unwanted scrutiny.
That comment is Reilly’s joke and allegation, not evidence that competitors deliberately lose or that any government agency has threatened club members.
Reilly has separately cited a former Trump caddie who claimed that staff understood Trump was expected to win tournaments and post the lowest score.
Trump credits his Bedminster victory to talent
After the Bedminster championship, Trump celebrated the result on Truth Social and said he receives very little time to practice because he is focused on other responsibilities. He attributed the 70 to his talent and mocked the other competitors’ abilities.
Reilly challenged the result again in an August 17 Washington Post opinion column, pointing to Trump’s age, the reported score, and his long-running doubts about the president’s claimed championship record.
Little-known fact: Reilly wrote about playing golf with Trump in his 2003 book Who’s Your Caddy?, 16 years before “Commander in Cheat” was published in 2019.
TL;DR
- Trump claims more than 40 club championships across his golf properties.
- His Aug. 2 Bedminster victory was reported by some outlets as his claimed 43rd club championship.
- Rick Reilly says Trump told him that he sometimes played the opening round at a new course alone and declared himself its first club champion.
- In 2023, Trump claimed a senior championship after missing the first day of a 2-day tournament for a funeral and using an earlier round as his opening score.
- Reilly has questioned Trump’s reported 2-under 70 at age 80, while Trump attributes the result to his talent and denies broader allegations that he cheats at golf.
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This article was made with AI assistance and human editing.
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