Henrik Stenson leads the LIV event, but the Donald Trump circus steals the limelight | LIV Golf Series

It didn’t take long for the barely veiled political undertones surrounding the LIV Golf tournament at Donald Trump’s Bedminster golf club to surface on Saturday afternoon.

The several hundred spectators who fill the stands behind the first tee broke out to the rolling chant of “Four more years!” it echoed across the grounds as the former US president appeared in a white polo shirt and red Make America Great Again cap to watch the lead group of Henrik Stenson, Patrick Reed and Phachara Khongwatmai begin their second round after the horn sent off with a shotgun start at a quarter past one.

Several meters away, Greg Norman, CEO and face of the controversial Saudi-funded breakaway tour, raised the roof with a sheepish grin and embraced the raucous atmosphere, although it was deftly avoided by the official broadcast, which streamed on YouTube to around 70,000 viewers in the absence of a television agreement. And that was before a surprise appearance by Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Republican congresswoman and self-proclaimed Christian nationalist from Georgia.

If day one was a Diet Maga rally, this was the Maga Classic. The crowd for Saturday’s second round of the 54-hole, no-cut tournament was slightly larger and certainly louder than Friday’s opening session, as no more than 2,000 spectators descended on the 500-acre grounds of Trump National in this central New Jersey farm town. 73 km west of New York City. The previously deserted grandstands and grassy mounds along the fairways were filled with fans as the $25 million tournament’s middle act played out under pristine blue skies and comfortable 88F (31C) temperatures.

Stenson, the joint leader of the night, fresh off his dismissal as Europe’s Ryder Cup captain last week, shot a two-under par 69 to extend his lead on the course to nine under, three strokes better than Dustin Johnson and four ahead of Patrick Reed. Carlos Ortiz and Talor Gooch.

But it was the former US president who once again soaked up the limelight, even as the star-studded field of PGA Tour defectors drove the concurrent round of the 7,591-yard Old Course. A steady mass of several hundred supporters spent the afternoon stationed outside the enclosed terrace next to 16. tee, where Trump took the second half of the day’s play. Many of them wore shirts branded with familiar slogans: Let’s Go Brandon; Miss Me Still?; Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump.

Their patience was rewarded when he finally emerged from the fishbowl to wild roars for one improvised performance of God Bless America and was joined by Taylor Greene, the conservative firebrand who has cool angled for a spot on Trump’s 2024 ticket. The atmosphere was far calmer a few hundred yards behind the 514-yard, par-five first tee, where a plaque and a bouquet of white flowers marked the plot of newly turned dirt where Ivana Trump, the former president’s first wife, was buried this time . week.

Trump’s illegal use of the presidential seal at his Bedminster club has drawn a stern tut-tut from ethics watchdogs, but many of the other pointers about his tenure in the White House fall on the right side of federal law. Anyone who left their Maga hat at home could pick one up in the pro shop: unsigned for $35, signed for $500. The same goes for copies of his pictorial memoir, Our Journey Together, which costs $75.

Critics have accused the Saudi government of using their reported $2 billion investment USD in LIV Golf to “sportswash” the kingdom’s abhorrent human rights record, alleged ties to the 9/11 attacks, severe crackdown on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, and the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

But while the gossip class in Washington has spent the week pondering whether Trump’s face-to-face with a regime he once accused of a role in 9/11 will cost him politically, the scenes on Saturday appear to put the question to rest — with golf still firm. in the back seat.