‘Who comes up with these ridiculous ideas?’ Donald Trump takes pop at new golf rule

Donald Trump is not a fan of changes introduced in the NFL – and it’s seen golf caught in the President’s crossfire…

The golf ball rollback has triggered plenty of debate since it was revealed in a groundbreaking joint announcement by the sport’s governing bodies.

What we didn’t expect is for what seems like a common sense rule change in the NFL for us to find out what the most powerful man in the world thinks about it.

The NFL’s ‘dynamic kick-off’ rule – which determines that, for the safety of the players, the kicking team must stay in place until the ball is caught or touches the ground – is the subject of Donald Trump’s latest rant on his social platform Truth.

“The NFL has to get rid of that ridiculous looking new kickoff rule,” the 47th President angrily thumbed into into his phone during this week’s Monday Night Football. “How can they make such a big and sweeping change so easily and quickly?

“It’s at least as dangerous as the ‘normal’ kickoff and looks like hell. The ball is moving, and the players are not, the exact opposite of what football is all about. ‘Sissy’ football is bad for America, and bad for the NFL! Who comes up with these ridiculous ideas?

“It’s like wanting to ‘roll back’ the golf ball so it doesn’t go (nearly!) as far. Fortunately, college football will remain the same, hopefully forever!”

The golf ball rollback plans – or “sissy golf” as we’re definitely going to call it from now on – will render every existing ball currently in circulation as non-conforming from January 2028 in the big leagues and two years later for the rest of us, and will see distances reined in by as much as 15 yards for the biggest hitters in the game and around three to five yards for amateurs.

But does the casual fan really care that the Rory McIlroys of the world will be driving it 310 instead of 325? McIlroy himself certainly doesn’t, and has publicly supported the changes – even if some governing bodies, including the PGA of America, don’t.

As for Trump, who reportedly plays off a handicap of three, well, he’ll be almost 84 by the time this affects him – and presumably still hitting it 300-plus…

• Everything you need to know about the golf ball rollback

• Donald Trump caught up in bizarre ‘cheating’ incident as he returns to Scottish golf course