President Trump begins a chant of ‘Tiger, Tiger, Tiger’ at a White House reception last month as Woods beams in appreciation – Jim Watson/AFP
Unlike hostile receptions for other White House visitors of late, Tiger Woods was welcomed by Donald Trump for the most gushing exchange of mutual praise. “Tiger, Tiger, Tiger,” chanted the US president during one press event as he stood shoulder to shoulder with the golfing great. “Let me ask you, is there anybody like our Tiger?” Trump asked the assembled throng. “He’s the greatest.”
Woods, in turn, stood proudly alongside the president wearing a Presidential Medal of Freedom he had received from Trump in 2019. “It’s an honour to be here with you, Mr President,” he said.
Meetings had been arranged in part because Trump had boasted before the election he could sort out golf’s civil war in “10 to 15 minutes”. PGA tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott joined the pair that day in key talks with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia and the financial muscle behind LIV Golf.
But as golf now edges towards ending divisions, it is another union of relations – with Woods confirming he is dating Trump’s former daughter-in-law – that underlines close-knit connections behind two American powerbroker families.
Woods has never overtly declared his political leanings, but ties with various Trump relatives in recent months have become impossible to miss. “Love is in the air and life is better with you by my side,” Woods said on Sunday in a social media post of his relationship with Vanessa Trump, who is said to remain close with her former father-in-law.
Vanessa’s eldest daughter Kai, 17, and Woods’s children Charlie, 16, and Sam, 17, all attend the same school. Charlie and Kai, who recently committed to playing golf at the University of Miami, are both highly rated amateurs. In February, rumours first circulated of a potential relationship between Woods and Vanessa as he was seen arriving at the Genesis Invitational car park with Kai, just days after announcing he was grieving the death of his mother, Kultida.
Lengthy and ongoing Saudi PIF-PGA Tour negotiations have inevitably seen Woods also spend more time than ever with President Trump. The pair have been out on the golf course together privately in recent months while at the same time spearheading negotiations for a sporting peace deal.
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Both Woods and Trump have controversial histories in their personal lives. But for the president, there is a genuine love of golf that has undoubtedly fuelled his enthusiasm to welcome Woods to the extended family. White House records show he has played a round at his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida eight weekends in a row since returning to power.
There are, of course, also major business advantages to be gained. In April, Trump National Doral Miami will play host to a LIV tournament for the fourth consecutive year, while Trump-owned courses in Virginia and New Jersey have also served as venues for LIV events.
Golf has been Trump’s staunchest supporter among sports, with combat sports like the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Wrestling Entertainment equally vocal in their backing yet lacking the heritage and clout that golf brings.
It has not always been smooth sailing for Trump, though. In 2021, and in response to Trump’s role in the Capitol Hill riots, the PGA stripped Trump Bedminster of the right to host the 2022 PGA Championship. Trump was infuriated by the decision – just as he has been with the R&A’s refusal to take the Open back to Turnberry since he took ownership in 2014.
But that has done little to diminish his influence on the sport and inevitably, when leaders for the PGA and PIF announced a “framework agreement” in June 2023 to merge the rival tours, Trump hailed it as a “big, beautiful and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf”.
Should Keegan Bradley’s Team USA regain the Ryder Cup this September at Bethpage, expect the White House invitation to go out to the 12 winning golfers for a reception with the president. That has not always gone to plan, with the Philadelphia Eagles yet to appear in Washington DC since winning the Super Bowl in February – having refused to attend when they last became NFL world champions during Trump’s first term in office – and basketball team Golden State Warriors being disinvited when star player Steph Curry expressed reservations about accepting any invitation in 2017.
Woods, for his part, has been cautious about any major expressions of support for Trump and the Republican party. In August 2018, after Woods was pressed about his friendship with Trump, he said: “You have to respect the office. No matter who is in the office, you may like, dislike personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office.”
Woods, wearing his Presidential Medal of Freedom, with Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House in 2019 – Saul Loeb/AFP
Woods refused to be drawn, however, when asked to express a view on Trump’s impact on race relations.
Trump at the time responded on X: “The Fake News Media worked hard to get Tiger Woods to say something that he didn’t want to say. Tiger wouldn’t play the game – he is very smart.”
Now, however, Woods is far less risk-averse in expressing his commitment to another Trump. “We look forward to our journey through life together,” he says of his blossoming relationship with Vanessa.
Donald Trump has always craved credibility in golf. With the Trump family connection with the biggest superstar the game has known now secured, the president’s annoyance at his courses continually being denied a major will only intensify.
Woods-Trump partnership could be a double-sided wedge
If this was a love ignited by the school gates then be sure that the relationship announced on Sunday by Tiger Woods and Vanessa Trump was forged at the country club.
Two divorced adults, with two talented golfing children, this meeting of two famous, if not infamous, families will clearly give the 15-time major winner more focus on the golf course.
Not on his own game, however. Woods, 49, is in the midst of a long and depressingly familiar recovery from injury after an operation on his snapped Achilles earlier this month. He is all but written off for the season and instead faces exhaustive recuperative sessions on the physio table and in the gym and on the range. Yet in the meantime he has another role to fulfil.
Of course, with his son, Charlie, Woods’s summer was always going to centre around following the 16-year-old around Florida and beyond as he tries to carve his own name in US junior golf and so escape what is, perhaps, the biggest paternal shadow ever cast in the game.
Charlie is at a critical time of his development to see if he has the wherewithal to make a living out of his maddening sport and it is fair to say that he would be stretched to find a better mentor. Yet will his father now also provide fairway guidance to his partner’s offspring? The Trump clan will certainly be praying for this to be part of the deal.
It was surely nothing more than a coincidence that on the Sunday the thoroughly un-Tiger-like statement dropped on to his social media channels – it actually began “love is in the air” – Charlie and Kai Trump, Vanessa’s daughter and the president’s granddaughter – had both been competing at the Sage Valley Invitational, maybe the most prestigious junior tournament in the world.
Rory McIlroy accompanied Kai Trump (right), granddaughter of President Trump, at the Genesis Invitational in California earlier this year – Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images
Alas, these were not the most rousing results for the Woods-Trump brigade, an alliance already coined the “Axis of Eagle”. Kai finished 24th in a field of 24, while Charlie was tied 25th out of 36. Kai, 17, is signed up for Miami University next year, but stands at 815th in the American Junior Golf Association rankings. In the boys division, Charlie ranks 838th.
In truth, this pair of students at Benjamin School – the £29,000-a-year establishment close by the respective family homes in the southern Florida enclave of Palm Beach and Jupiter where Charlie’s sister, Sam, also attends, as do Kai’s four siblings – have a long, long way to travel even to approach their lifelong dreams.
Yet with the red-shirted one in their corner, they have all the necessary motivation and nous to give it the best crack. It will be fascinating to chart their progress over the weeks and months, particularly with Woods at the helm.
Except this could be a double-sided wedge, as it has the potential for Woods to achieve his competitive rush during the down months. And with the stability that has for such long periods been missing from his private life, this added purpose must surely be good news for the fans praying for another comeback.
Who knows, this could yet turn out to be a marriage made in Jupiter – if not quite heaven.
Inevitably, the industry will frantically delve further into the meaning of the Tiger-Trump amalgamation. Vanessa and Don Jnr, her former husband, are said to enjoy an amicable relationship and this will calm fears that any acrimony could impact the ongoing negotiations between the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the PGA Tour.
Woods is a key figure as far as the Tour is concerned and President Trump has placed himself at the centre of those discussions, because of his affinity with the sport and the kingdom and because of his own business interests, naturally. Woods has played golf with Trump recently and also visited the White House, and the denizen of the Oval Office will be thrilled to have the icon on his side and, just about, in his tribe.
Trump has always craved respect in the professional game and, forever with an eye on the bottom time, will be hoping that with a rich golf club portfolio boasting courses such as Turnberry and Doral, this connection will prove fruitful. However, in a time of great uncertainty, what this could mean to the sport at large remains unknown. Intrigue is in the air.
