It is well known just how passionate Donald Trump remains about the game of golf, with the 45th President of the United States of America owning a number of courses across the globe.
Donald Trump, of course, may find himself back in the White House after November’s election. Nevertheless, it would be no surprise to see him still getting plenty of rounds under his belt even if he emerges victorious against Kamala Harris.
Many were certainly stunned by how good Trump was when he joined Bryson DeChambeau in a Break 50 challenge on the LIV Golf star’s YouTube channel earlier this year. So it seems fair to say that golf is something that Trump takes very, very seriously.
Trump’s company bought Doral in 2012. At the time, the Blue Monster course at the Florida property was hosting the WGC-Cadillac Championship – a tournament which continued to be held at the venue until 2017 before it moved to Mexico City.
Doral had been on the PGA Tour calendar since 1962. But it would appear that some changes made to the course later on in its run did not go down well with everyone.
Scott Vail is now the man on the bag for Keegan Bradley. For 12 years however, Vail was the caddie for Brandt Snedeker before they parted ways in 2018. But it seems that Vail expected to lose his job several years earlier – after comments he had made on social media about the changes to Doral.
Scott Vail reveals why he had to apologise to Donald Trump after a PGA Tour event at Doral
Speaking on Subpar about venting his frustrations about the course publicly after one year’s tournament, Vail revealed that his comments, as you might expect, did not go down at all well with Doral’s owner.
“The last day we were middling around, like 40th, that’s the best we could do there, we couldn’t do anything. So we’re walking down the last and John [McLaren], he’s like, ‘you’ve got to say something on social media, you’ve got to’. I was like, ‘you’re right, I’m going to do it, as soon as we get in that scoring area’. And Johnny’s like my older mentor, I would always ask things, and run it by him. We get in the scoring tent and I was, ‘Dump Doral, worst golf course I’ve ever caddied on’. Didn’t think of the magnitude of my words on social media,” he said.
“The next day, we’re going to Tampa, I wake up and Brandt’s brother who’s a lawyer and a judge, a really smart guy and somebody that I’m quite close to still, he’s like, ‘oh man, what did you say last night?’ It started to unravel, the repercussions. Brandt, he does things the right way.
“And so, anyway it made headlines, CBS Sports, the main page of their sport sections. I was like, ‘oh man, now I’m in trouble’. But I still believe it, so anyway I say that. Monday, Tuesday rolls around, they want to take some action with me, and Donald Trump’s associates, this is before he was President, probably two or three years before he was President, they got involved and I had to write an apology email to Donald Trump.
“Now we’re at Tampa the next week and I’m at the golf course and I’m just trying to avoid everybody, because guys are giving me a hard time, and I’m thinking I’m going to lose my job. Sneds was close to firing me I think. It just wasn’t a good look. So I had to apologise to him, Brandt had to apologise to him as well.
“It’s like Wednesday and I still haven’t apologised, because I have Johnny and Foochy in my ear saying, ‘don’t do it, he’s going to bully you, don’t let him bully you’. And I’m like, ‘you’re right, I’m not apologising’. Well, Brandt’s already sent the apology, he reads me the email back and it was from Donald Trump, and it was, ‘thanks very much for the email apology, Brandt, the boys love the golf course, it’s a great golf course’. It was like four or five lines this reply back to Sneds and the last couple of lines was, ‘oh by the way, your caddie’s a moron and you should fire him’.”
Not the smartest decision
Vail went on to confirm that he did indeed send Trump a short apology. And perhaps it is no surprise to hear that Trump decided against replying to him.
It is clearly not the best move to lash out in the manner Vail did. And you would imagine that he would have felt particularly upset to put Snedeker in that position, given that he had probably not asked for any of the drama that came their way.
However, criticising Vail for using social media in that manner would also be unfair. Given that this was before 2016, it likely came at a time when much of the world was still learning what sort of consequences using social media could have. And Donald Trump was definitely not the headline-maker he has been ever since he decided to enter politics.
Vail will probably just be pleased that the PGA Tour have not been back to the Blue Monster in nearly a decade.
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