{"id":817633,"date":"2026-10-29T14:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/817633\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T14:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T14:12:25","slug":"trump-and-golf-aligned-on-mission-to-turn-back-time-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/817633\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and golf aligned on mission to turn back time \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sun has set on LIV Golf<\/a>, with each day bringing a fresh exodus of players fleeing the newly gaunt and impoverished lands of the rebel circuit.<\/p>\n

The breakaway tour was dead from the moment the Saudis turned off the money tap, and noted golf fan Donald Trump<\/a> can take some of the blame on this one: his decision to destabilise the Middle East by bombing Iran would convince any right-thinking sovereign wealth fund that there are better uses for their money than putting another Lamborghini in Dustin Johnson\u2019s<\/a> garage.<\/p>\n

Whatever influence the Saudis bought with Trump via LIV, it didn\u2019t last long. The PGA Tour<\/a>, by contrast, has strengthened its diplomatic ties with the US president. Trump was guest of honour at last month\u2019s Presidents Cup \u2013 a sort of Lidl-brand Ryder Cup<\/a> owned by the Tour \u2013 while Trump has publicly backed the Tour\u2019s opposition to a proposed rollback of technology to limit the distance travelled by the golf ball.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s a case of one endorsement in exchange for another, because the Tour has this month backed one of Trump\u2019s hobby horses: permanently adopting daylight savings time.<\/p>\n

Trump wants to end America\u2019s biannual fiddling with clocks and so has proposed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would put the United States on a permanent summer time, meaning darker mornings but brighter evenings. There is, of course, a rich irony that Trump, having done more than most to take the world back to the 1930s, can\u2019t countenance going back even one hour more.<\/p>\n

The proposed law has been passed by the US House of Representatives<\/a> but has been stalled in the Senate, whose foot-dragging Trump railed against again this week. \u201cTAKE A VOTE,\u201d he yelled on social media.<\/p>\n

After the Presidents Cup, PGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp wrote to Trump to thank him for his attendance and voiced his organisation\u2019s support for the Sunshine Protection Act. Trump has shared Rolapp\u2019s letter, which shows the Tour\u2019s motives are pragmatic, as another hour of evening daylight would allow people to play more golf.<\/p>\n

\"PGAPGA Tour chief executive Brian Rolapp cited claims that 23 million rounds of golf could be generated per annum in the US via Trump’s Sunshine Protection Act. Photograph: Stuart Franklin\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Rolapp quoted figures compiled by the The National Golf Course Owners Association, claiming a permanent move to summer time would generate another 23 million rounds of golf per year in the US, which would supposedly be worth another $1 billion annually in direct revenue for the golf industry. Among the people making money from the American golf industry: Trump.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Golf momentarily takes backseat in Doonbeg as Trump touches down at Irish OpenOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

That America\u2019s political establishment would change time and the very rhythm of the seasons to suit the economic and sporting proclivities of country clubs would be an apt summary of the nation\u2019s capture by the powerful and wealthy. But, and stick with us on this one, we think Trump and the American elite are right on this one. Hey, a stopped clock, and all that.<\/p>\n

The EU debated abolishing daylight savings time in 2018, with the European Commission publishing a 48-page impact assessment report. The policy was shelved because of a lack of unanimity across member states.<\/a> Ireland raised the reasonable post-Brexit concern that we could end up with two different time zones on the island.<\/p>\n

But if you look at these things from a purely sporting perspective \u2013 which, like Trump, is obviously this columnist\u2019s acute angle on to the world \u2013 then there is no reason to dally for any longer. Ireland should also be abolishing twice-yearly clock changes to adopt a permanent summer time to guarantee more daylight in the evening.<\/p>\n

While the European Commission gave sport a measly two paragraphs in their impact assessment, it quoted studies that found brighter evenings would lead to a small increase in daily physical activity, especially for children.<\/p>\n

This truth is self-evident: more evening light means more opportunity for exercise and sport, which can only be a good thing.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe GAA’s split-season approach allows intercounty games to bask in the summer sun, while club games are left to endure the long winter nights. Photograph: Cathal Noonan\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Beyond that, it is a necessary adjustment to maintain the spirit of the GAA\u2019s split season. When you think about it, the clock changes are a profoundly elitist thing that suits the intercounty player at the height of the summer, with the poor, scorned club player forced to schlep to training around club championship matches in the murk and dark of winter. They at least deserve the respect of driving to training no later than dusk.<\/p>\n

We have previously written in these pages<\/a> about the FAI\u2019s dejected failure to move to summer soccer, so abolishing the clock changes would give them the help they need and edge summer towards soccer.<\/p>\n

In Ireland, we also put the clocks back on the same day as the national marathon is staged. This is wanton messing with runners\u2019 circadian rhythms that no politician should be able to stand over.<\/p>\n

Granted, it\u2019s easy for a sports columnist to argue for darker mornings and brighter evenings, given we are a class of people who rarely have cause to wake before 11am. We have heard rumours of how miserable it would be to arrive at work or school in the pitch darkness, but it\u2019s not something with which we really trouble ourselves.<\/p>\n

And if you want to argue that sport alone is no reason to make such a profound and far-reaching change to Irish life, then all we have to say is: Please keep your letters to the editor to a minimum, because you make a good point and he is a busy man.<\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s worth taking the plunge, and if we all do so, you\u2019ll realise that by this week next year, the only person who will still be pining to turn the clock back will be the Manchester United<\/a> fan in your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sun has set on LIV Golf, with each day bringing a fresh exodus of players fleeing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[141,13183,5904,59649,8693,6547,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-817633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-donald-trump","tag-gaa","tag-golf","tag-liv-golf-invitational-series","tag-pga-tour","tag-ryder-cup","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}