Trump and golf aligned on mission to turn back time

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

The breakaway tour was dead from the moment the Saudis turned off the money tap, and noted golf fan Donald Trump 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’s garage.

Whatever influence the Saudis bought with Trump via LIV, it didn’t last long. The PGA Tour, by contrast, has strengthened its diplomatic ties with the US president. Trump was guest of honour at last month’s Presidents Cup – a sort of Lidl-brand Ryder Cup owned by the Tour – while Trump has publicly backed the Tour’s opposition to a proposed rollback of technology to limit the distance travelled by the golf ball.

Perhaps it’s a case of one endorsement in exchange for another, because the Tour has this month backed one of Trump’s hobby horses: permanently adopting daylight savings time.

Trump wants to end America’s 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’t countenance going back even one hour more.

The proposed law has been passed by the US House of Representatives but has been stalled in the Senate, whose foot-dragging Trump railed against again this week. “TAKE A VOTE,” he yelled on social media.

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

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.

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That America’s 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’s 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.

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. Ireland raised the reasonable post-Brexit concern that we could end up with two different time zones on the island.

But if you look at these things from a purely sporting perspective – which, like Trump, is obviously this columnist’s acute angle on to the world – 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.

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.

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

Beyond that, it is a necessary adjustment to maintain the spirit of the GAA’s 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.

We have previously written in these pages about the FAI’s dejected failure to move to summer soccer, so abolishing the clock changes would give them the help they need and edge summer towards soccer.

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

Granted, it’s 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’s not something with which we really trouble ourselves.

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.

Still, it’s worth taking the plunge, and if we all do so, you’ll 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 fan in your life.