The 2022 PGA Championship will not take place on the Trump Bedminster course in New Jersey, the PGA of America, the host body of the Grand Slam tournament, announced on Sunday, four days after incidents perpetrated by supporters of the US president in Washington.
“The PGA of America Board of Directors has voted to exercise the right to terminate the agreement to host the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster,” its chairman Jim Richardson said in a statement.
“It became clear that holding the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to our brand and jeopardize our ability to maintain the sustainability of our mission,” added the leader in a video posted on the website of the body. .
This announcement follows the many calls made in the world of golf for the leaders of the sport to distance themselves from Trump, himself a big fan of the little white ball and often seen club in hand during his tenure, on his course. of Bedminster.
Media Golfweek, in a scathing column urging to sever ties with the president, claimed that the PGA of America had been debating for two years whether to move the Major to another location, but that it was not serene at the idea of upsetting a “man deemed to be vindictive”.
Thursday, the day after the Washington incident, Trump presented the medal of freedom to two former champions, the South African Gary Player and the Swedish Annika Sorenstam, immediately criticized after agreeing to be honored with the highest civilian decoration .
The star Tiger Woods, fifteen times crowned in Grand Slam, was also awarded this medal from the hands of Trump in May 2019.
Not a first
The latter, who lost the presidential election in November to his Democratic rival Joe Biden, disputes this result and is accused of having deliberately encouraged the invasion of the Congress building by his supporters on Wednesday. Violence around and within the building left five people dead, including a police officer, in the capital.
US Democrats on Sunday warned they were ready to launch a new “impeachment,” an impeachment process, if Vice President Mike Pence does not bring himself to remove him from office by activating the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
Isolated in the White House, released by several ministers, the American president does not seem willing to go of his own accord, ten days before the inauguration of Joe Biden scheduled for January 20.
This is not the first time that American golf authorities have distanced themselves from Trump.
In 2015, the American Federation USPGA canceled the PGA Grand Slam at the Trump National Club in Los Angeles after the then presidential candidate made derogatory remarks about Mexican immigrants.
In 2016, the PGA Tour decided to move a stage of the 2017 World Golf Championship to Mexico, when it was initially to take place at the Doral course, also owned by Trump in Miami. The authority defended itself at the time of the political nature of its decision.
On the other hand, the US Golf Association had maintained the women’s US Open in 2017 at Trump Bedminster, despite sexist comments about women made by the billionaire during his election campaign.
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