World No. 1 Rory McIlroy has slammed U.S. President Donald Trump over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak and also declaring he never wants to play golf again with the ‘world’s most-powerful man’.
The four-time Major accused Trump of ‘trying to politicize’ the worldwide pandemic and also his controvserial boasting of the extent of America’s testing figures, and this despite the States tragically now leading the world’s highest death toll at more than 86,000 and with predictions of 200,000 deaths being forecasted.
“We’re in the midst of something that’s pretty serious right now,” said McIlroy in a McKellar Golf Podcast.
“And the fact that he’s trying to politicize it and make it a campaign rally, saying that the U.S. administers the most tests in the world like it’s a contest.
“It’s just not the way a leader should act and there is a bit of diplomacy that you need to show and I just don’t think he’s shown that, especially in these times.”
McIlroy drew enormous controversy three years ago when he played with Trump at the President’s Trump Doral course in Miami.
There was also McIlroy’s club-throwing incident a year earlier on the same course in the WGC – Cadillac Championship and with Trump, and then Republican nominee for the Presidency, arranging for a diver to retrieve the iron and then in a typical Trump publicity stunt handing back the club to McIlroy on the practice range ahead of his next round in the Tour event.
McIlroy, 31 admitted he found the 2017 outing with Trump ‘enjoyable’, but clearly stressed: “That doesn’t mean I agree with everything – or, in fact, anything – that he says”.
McIlroy also now resides in the private Bear’s Club estate next door to the just as exclusive Trump National course in West Palm Beach.
And he was asked if he would again play golf with Trump.
“I don’t know if he’d want to play with me again after what I just said,” McIlroy said.
“I know it’s very self-serving of me to say ‘No’ and if I don’t, then it means then I’m not putting myself in position to be put under scrutiny and that I’m avoiding that.
“But I probably wouldn’t, no.”
As pointed out above, McIlroy had played with Trump in February 2017 and then on the Tuesday ahead of the Masters that year, McIlroy said he would “think twice” about playing golf with the President again.
“Whenever an invitation or a request comes my way, I don’t want to say I jump at the chance, but at the same time, you know, to see the Secret Service, to see the scene, I mean, that’s really what I was going for,” McIIroy said following an Augusta practice round.
“I mean, there was not one bit of politics discussed in that round of golf. He was more interested talking about the grass that he just put on the greens. But, yeah, look, it’s a difficult one. I felt I would have been making more of a statement if I had of turned it down. It was not a tough place to be put in, but it was a round of golf and nothing more.
“Would I do it again? After the sort of backlash I received, I’d think twice about it”.
McIlroy has confirmed his intention to play in the first three events after the PGA Tour’s proposed restart next month, starting with a tournament first appearance in the June 11th commencing Charles Schwab Challenge at the Colonial club in Fort Worth, Texas.
