Someone hacked into the USGA database to post some unflattering golf scores on Trump's account

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Someone hacked into the USGA database to post some unflattering golf scores on Trump's account

trump golf

Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images

President Donald Trump plays a round of golf on the Trump Turnberry resort in South Ayrshire.

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Someone appears to have hacked into the USGA-administered GHIN handicap system and posted some unflattering golf scores to President Trump's account, Golfweek reported.

The recorded scores were 101, 100, 108, and 102. The courses used were Trump National New York (100 and 101), Trump International in West Palm Beach (108), and the Cochise Course at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to Golfweek.

"We have become aware of reports in the media questioning recent scores posted on President Trump's GHIN account. As we dug into the data it appears someone has erroneously posted a number of scores on behalf of the GHIN user," Craig Annis, the USGA's managing director of communications, told Golfweek in a statement.

Annis added that the USGA is taking action to remove the scores and find the origin of the issue.

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The scores are likely not authentic, as Trump was traveling, not playing golf, on Friday, the day the scores were released.

The posting of these scores came two days after Trump was recorded earning an impressive golf score on the USGA's score-tracking service, claiming to have shot a 68. It was later deleted.

As INSIDER'S Tyler Lauletta previously reported, the GHIN database is not particularly secure, which makes it possible someone else entered both the suspiciously impressive and the less flattering scores - as either a mistake or a prank.

Many were skeptical of the 68 score, particularly because Trump has a reputation for cheating on the golf course.

Read more: Trump accused of taking another player's ball to cheat and win a championship at one of his golf clubs

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"He cheats like hell. So I don't quite know how he is in business. They say that if you cheat at golf, you cheat at business," LPGA golfer Suzann Pettersen told a Norwegian newspaper in 2018. "He always says he is the world's best putter. But in all the times I've played him, he's never come close to breaking 80. But what's strange is that every time I talk to him, he says he just golfed a 69, or that he set a new course record or won a club championship someplace."

The White House and USGA did not immediately respond for comment.

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