By Kyle Feldscher, CNN
Farmingdale, New York (CNN) — The first tee box at any Ryder Cup is one of the premier experiences in sports: A massive grandstand packed to the gills with golf fans practically exploding with patriotic pride, chanting and singing for their favorite players.
Tucked in among those screaming thousands will be the golfer-in-chief: President Donald Trump.
In his latest appearance at a major sporting event, the president is expected to attend an event that will tug at the very fiber of his being. It’s his favorite sport at its most nationalistic as 12 players from the USA take on 12 players from Team Europe in a match play tournament for golfing supremacy. On top of that, this year’s tournament is at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, on Long Island – a place near and dear to any Empire State golfer, even one like the president who hasn’t played a public track like the fabled Black course in many, many years.
It’s a sort of perfect Trump stew: It’s a high-profile tournament that pits the US against Europe in his favorite sport at a hallowed course in Trump’s home state, just an hour or so away from the Queens neighborhoods where he grew up. Oh, and it’s a place that voted for him heavily in 2024.
Unlike many of his predecessors, Trump’s presence at the nation’s most high-profile sporting events is starting to feel like a normal occurrence. While Team USA will already be highly motivated to reclaim the Ryder Cup after a drubbing in 2023, captain Keegan Bradley noted that Trump’s attendance is going to ratchet things up even more.
“I’m just thrilled he’s going to be here. I really look forward to what that first tee is going to be like with the president on the tee,” Bradley said.
“I think this first tee at Bethpage is going to be a sporting event to remember across any sport, and then you add on the president of the United States standing there, I really think it’s going to be something that everyone will remember forever.”
For a president who inspires such intense emotions – both positive and negative – among everyday Americans, stepping out into the world of sports can be a public relations risk. Unlike a political event where attendance can be limited to supporters or tightly controlled to make sure that obvious dissent is at a minimum, sporting events are wild and unpredictable environments. The president might be wildly cheered, as he has been at UFC events. He also might be on the receiving end of some loud boos, as he was in his home borough of Queens earlier this month at the US Open men’s tennis final.
Trump’s frequent attendance at these events, and his eagerness to be seen in high-profile moments such as the trophy presentation at the Club World Cup final, flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that it’s not great for a president to be jeered in public.
But the Ryder Cup, just like Trump himself, is a little bit different from everything else.
A warm welcome expected
One of the things that will make Trump’s appearance at Bethpage Black different than the other events he’s attended recently: He’ll likely get a warm welcome from the players and fans alike.
Golfers are known to be some of the more conservative athletes and the president has played with several of the men who are making up the two teams this weekend. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler told reporters he talks with the president not infrequently, getting texts or calls from the avid golf fan on Pennsylvania Avenue when he notches up wins.
The tournament itself will also be played in Trump country politically. New York sent its 28 electoral votes in 2024 to Kamala Harris but Nassau County – where Bethpage is located – went for the president by 5 points. Neighboring Suffolk County was an even bigger win for the president, handing him a nearly 13-point margin.
Add all that to the fact that Bethpage is known as one of the most rowdy atmospheres in golf and the intense patriotism that the Ryder Cup inspires every other year, and it’s likely that the president won’t be facing the boo birds that confronted him in Queens and the Bronx earlier this month when he attended the US Open and the New York Yankees game on September 11.
“I hope he will inspire us to victory,” said Bryson DeChambeau, who is a co-chair on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition. “I think he’ll be a great force for us to get a lot of people on our side. I think it will be interesting and exciting to see how the crowd and everybody reacts. It’s going to be an electric environment.”
The captains of both teams said earlier this week their players are feeling a lot of excitement over being able to play in front of a sitting president.
Bradley – who was urged by Trump pick himself as the first playing captain since the 1950s – told reporters that the president’s attendance isn’t a distraction for his team as it tries to take back the Ryder Cup.
“Anytime you can be around a current president is a pretty phenomenal thing, but when you’re representing your country at a place like Bethpage Black in New York, having the president there to support you is something that is just absolutely incredible. I’m really grateful to him for doing that for us,” Bradley said.
Added Team Europe captain Luke Donald: “Anytime a sitting president wants to come to an event, it just shows how big the Ryder Cup is. You’ve got to see that as a mark of respect. President Trump is obviously a big supporter of golf, and he knows a lot of the players this week and has met them before. I think you see it as that, as a mark of respect, that a sitting president wants to support an event when he has a very busy schedule. To find time for that shows something.”
Bucking a presidential trend
It’s not exactly unheard of for a sitting president to attend high-profile – or even low-profile – sporting events.
Legend has it that the seventh inning stretch in baseball was invented because President William Howard Taft stood up to loosen up his legs at a baseball game in 1910, prompting the rest of the crowd to stand as well because it was assumed he was leaving the game. Presidential attendance at Opening Day baseball games was a 20th century tradition and stretched into President George W. Bush’s terms in office – including his famous first pitch at Yankee Stadium during the 2001 World Series following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
President Barack Obama was known to attend basketball games, sitting courtside on multiple occasions – including the first-ever college basketball game played on an aircraft carrier – and attended multiple baseball games as well.
But it’s rare for a president to become a fixture at the highest-profile American sporting events. Since he came back into office in January, Trump – as he so often does – has upended presidential norms.
Trump has attended the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, multiple UFC events, a LIV Golf tournament, the FIFA Club World Cup final, the US Open men’s tennis final, and a Yankees-Detroit Tigers baseball game in 2025 and attended the Army-Navy football game in December 2024 as president-elect.
Presidents often eschew going to big sporting events because of the security apparatus that surrounds their every move, and the work needed to secure such large venues can often be costly, difficult and – as seen at Arthur Ashe Stadium before the men’s US Open final – cause incredible delays for spectators.
But the president has made sports a central focus of his second term, weighing in frequently on cultural issues around athletics. That’s no accident, said Liz Huston, assistant press secretary at the White House.
“Sports are at the forefront of American culture, and President Trump loves them as the People’s President,” she said in a statement. “After successfully securing the FIFA World Cup and Summer Olympics, President Trump just stepped up again to save the Ryder Cup. President Trump is the greatest champion for sports of any president in American history, and he looks forward to watching these world-class events take place on U.S. soil.”
A potential security nightmare
For a president who was shot during a speech on the campaign trail and avoided a second assassination attempt while playing at his own golf course last summer, the question of security is paramount – especially in the wake of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing earlier this month.
When he attends sporting events, Trump is frequently at indoor venues or can watch the action from behind protective glass. Watching the Ryder Cup at an open-air golf course presents a whole different challenge, and attendees are being warned to be ready for an intense security operation on Friday.
With the first players set to tee off shortly after 7 a.m. ET, spectators were encouraged to arrive at Bethpage Black as early as possible. Security screening procedures will ramp up, including airport-like security to enter some areas around the clubhouse, the grandstand around the first tee and other points around the course.
At most golf tournaments, the crowds roam freely from hole to hole and can come and go from grandstands as they please. But not in the areas where Trump will be – tournament organizers warned that people may be subject to TSA-style screening more than once if they leave an area and seek to reenter.
A host of additional restrictions are going into place, including bans on large umbrellas, portable folding chairs, range finders used to judge shot distances and certain vapes and lighters.
It’s the kind of tight security that might make many presidents think it’s better to watch the tournament on TV rather than attend in person. But Europe’s Tyrrell Hatton said Trump’s desire to attend anyway shows the importance placed on the Ryder Cup.
“Trump loves golf, so it’s not really a surprise that he wants to be here and enjoy the atmosphere,” Hatton told reporters. “So yeah, I mean, it will be a good day, and I think everyone out there tomorrow will enjoy the atmosphere in one way or another. And I don’t see anything wrong with wanting to be a part of it.”