Trump hosts Coast Guard members for golf tournament in Florida

About 60 lucky Coast Guard members came ashore Friday to play in a golf tournament hosted by President Trump in Florida.

Mr. Trump invited the service members from Station Lake Worth Inlet, and other Coast Guard members from across the U.S., to play golf at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach as a thank-you for their service.

“These brave men and women patrol the waterways near Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago everyday,” said White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley. “The president wanted to thank these service members personally for their service to this nation.”

The president called it “a little Coast Guard challenge” and thanked the service members especially for their work saving lives during hurricanes last fall in Texas and in Florida.

’”It’s an honor to have you at the course,” he told the service members, boasting that he had shot a birdie on one hole earlier in the day.

They were playing in a format called a four-man scramble, in which all players in a foursome tee off and then choose their best tee shot as the spot from which to play their next shot.

The president also was providing lunch for the group. Many of the service members are from the same station where Mr. Trump visited on Thanksgiving Day; Gene Gibson is the commanding officer at Coast Guard Station Lake Worth Inlet.

The Coast Guard deployed cutters, patrol boats, helicopters and other equipment to protect Mr. Trump’s private seaside resort of Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach during his visits there.