The Loop

Rory McIlroy's round with Donald Trump forces White House to issue a statement

February 20, 2017

On Monday, the White House issued a statement regarding President Donald Trump. That in itself isn't surprising, but the topic was. That's because the statement didn't concern any of the President's cabinet nominations or any new policy, but rather, his recent round of golf with Rory McIlroy.

As first reported by No Laying Up, McIlroy played golf with President Trump on Sunday at Trump International. That isn't up for debate, especially since Clear Sports shared this photo of its CEO, Gary Singer, posing with McIlroy, Trump and former Yankees star Paul O'Neill.

What was questioned, however, is how many holes the President of four weeks played with the four-time major champ.

No Laying Up spoke to McIlroy, who said of Trump, "He probably shot around 80. He’s a decent player for a guy in his 70’s!" But Mike Memoli of the L.A. Times noticed a disparity in what reporters had been told about Trump's Sunday activities.

And the White House wound up issuing a statement clarifying whether the President had played 18 holes. Mermoli tweeted this a couple hours later:

While political reporters were surprised to learn President Trump had played another full round of golf, the golf media was more surprised to learn McIlroy had played at all. McIlroy, who is recovering from a rib injury, told No Laying Up he wasn't planning to play until next weekend, but he made an exception when he got an invite from the leader of the free world.

Representatives for McIlroy said the player wouldn’t comment further on his round with the President.