President Donald Trump's incredible golf round scores were actually faulty, posted by hackers
President Donald Trump's love for golf is widely known, and some recent reports proved that all the practicing may have helped him become an incredible golfer. According to his Golf Handicap and Information Network (GHIN) account, in a game he played on April 19, he apparently scored an incredible 68, which is inconsistent with his usual scores which are in the 70s or 80s. This fact that Trump has never submitted a score in the 60s tipped off golf fans, and later the United States Golf Association, after which an investigation revealed that the scores were posted erroneously.
It was sportswriter Leif Skodnick who seem to have spotted the issue with the scores first, and tweeted, "President Trump has posted an 18-hole golf score to @USGA Golf Handicap Information Network for the first time this season — a 68(!) on a course with a 75.3 rating/139 slope." This was accompanied by a screenshot of Trump's scores.
"We have become aware of the report in the media questioning recent scores posted on President Trump’s GHIN account. As we dug into the data it appears someone has erroneously posted a number of scores on behalf of the GHIN user. We are taking corrective action to remove the scores and partnering with our allied golf associations and their member clubs to determine the origin of the issue," USGA spokeswoman Janeen Driscoll said in a statement.
According to CNN, handicap measures a golfer's ability, and lower the handicap the better the golfer. The erroneous scores had brought Trump's handicap down to 18, which reportedly puts him in the top four percent of players. Ironically, this comes on the heels of a new book written by sportswriter Rick Reilly, 'Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump', which claims that Trump habitually cheats at golf.
The hackers who seem to have gained access to the Commander-in-chief's GHIN account are now posting terrible scores ranging from 100 to 108 under his name. These were uploaded on Friday, May 17, which eliminates the possibility that it could be legitimate scores, seeing as the President was traveling at the time and could not have been playing.