World No 1 Rory McIlroy has opened up on the backlash he received in the aftermath of playing golf with US president Donald Trump back in 2017.
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The Northern Irishman copped a great deal of abuse and criticism for his involvement in that famous round with the USA’s head of state.
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Trump, who is well known for his love for the game of golf, has since invited McIlroy again for a round but to no avail with McIlroy declining.
Speaking on the McKellar podcast, in anticipation of Sunday’s TaylorMade Driving Relief match, McIlroy was asked about his experience with president Trump and his personal opinion of him.
‘I’ll sit here and say the day that I did spend with him and others was very enjoyable. He’s very charismatic, he was nice to everyone — it didn’t matter whether you were me or guys in the cart barn or the pro at the golf club,’ said McIlroy.
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The four-time Major champion admits that the president has a certain likeable characteristic about that, keeping a rather diplomatic stance from his way running of the office.
‘He has something. He obviously has something or he wouldn’t be in the White House, right? He has something — whatever it is, an X factor, charisma, whatever. Most people that he came across that day he was cordial to, he was nice and personable. That was my only interaction with him the day I had with him.
‘But … that doesn’t mean that I agree with everything — or in fact anything — that he says.’
McIlroy then took aim at the US leader’s utterances during the pandemic.
‘We’re in the midst of something that’s pretty serious right now and the fact that he’s trying to politicise it and make it a campaign rally and say we’re administering the most tests in world like it is a contest — there’s something that just is terrible,’ McIlroy said.
‘It’s not the way a leader should act. There’s a sort of diplomacy that you need to have, and I don’t think he’s showing that … especially in these times.’
The Northern Irishman insists his decision to play with Trump ‘wasn’t an endorsement nor a political statement of any kind’.
