A man came on the screen during a commercial break to praise the golf course hosting the event — a course that happens to be owned by the president of the United States.
“This world-class venue features the best panoramic views of the historic Potomac River,” said Paul Levy, president of the PGA of America.
The commercial showed beautiful views of the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, which charges new members a $60,000 fee to join. It ended with a shot of the championship trophy in front of a man-made waterfall, a setting that can be rented out for weddings.
“It’s the greatest marketing in the world,” Eric Trump, the president’s son and an executive of the family company, said in an interview later at the course. He was celebrating the good publicity that the course had received related to the tournament.
As a golf tournament, this event is nothing unusual: one of five annual “majors” on a PGA tour for golfers 50 and older.
But the event, which runs through Sunday at this plush property just 25 miles from the White House, is a remarkable moment in President Trump’s young White House tenure — illustrating how the longtime businessman has retained some of his old identity as a golf-course impresario even as he adjusts to the presidency.
The success of this course, one of 16 worldwide that bear his name, is the result of meticulous effort by Trump the golf-course owner, who made $25 million in upgrades to the Virginia course that are lauded by golfers and who also inked a bigger tournament, the 2022 PGA Championship, for his Bedminster, N.J., course.
The weekend’s festivities also offer a reminder of the complications surrounding the promise from Trump’s lawyers that he would not use the presidency to boost his businesses. Trump has retained ownership of his real estate and branding empire — including the Virginia golf course — despite criticism from Democrats and ethics experts that he stood to personally profit from his public duties.