PGA Cancels Plan to Hold Championship at Trump’s Golf Club
The PGA of America said its board voted to terminate an agreement to host next year’s championship at Trump’s golf course.
(Bloomberg) -- The PGA of America’s board voted to terminate an agreement to host next year’s PGA Championship at a golf course owned by Donald Trump in New Jersey, delivering another blow to the president after his removal from technology platforms.
“It’s become clear that conducting the PGA championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand and would put at risk the PGA’s ability to deliver our many programs and sustain the longevity of our mission,” Jim Richerson, PGA of America’s president, said in a video message.
Entering the final week of his presidency, Trump is under mounting pressure after inciting a mob of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol. That prompted the House of Representatives to take up a resolution to impeach him for the second time in less than two years unless Vice President Mike Pence and the cabinet invoke the 25th Amendment this week to remove him from office.
This isn’t the first time the PGA has taken on an event at a Trump property following controversy. After Trump made comments about Mexican immigrants being rapists, the PGA decided not to hold its 2015 Grand Slam of Golf at Trump National in Los Angeles.
The golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, was also the location of Trump’s 2020 election fundraiser, which he attended after learning that one of his top aides had tested positive for Covid-19. The president also tested positive shortly after.
The R&A, which organizes the British Open, said Monday it wouldn’t hold golf’s oldest championship at Trump’s Turnberry course in Scotland in the “foreseeable future.” The organization didn’t have any future events scheduled at the Scottish resort that Trump has owned since 2014.
“We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances,” the R&A said in a statement.
Earlier last year, Trump pushed for the return of professional sports amid lockdowns across the country, saying the games were essential for the “psyche of our country.” In May, he golfed for the first time in more than two months, engaging in his personal passion.
The PGA of America, which has some 29,000 golf professionals who mostly teach the game, signed the deal with Trump National in 2014, the Associated Press reported.
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