Donald Trump wants to make one thing perfectly clear -- he doesn't cheat at golf.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee also said Thursday he has never golfed with former boxer Oscar De La Hoya, who earlier this week questioned Trump's integrity on the golf course.
"Not only didn't I cheat, I didn't play with him," Trump said. "I have never played a round of golf with this guy."
Trump said he respects the game too much to cheat and is good enough to have won a number of club championships. Trump, who owns 18 golf courses, said De La Hoya is lying about him because he wants to sell tickets to a fight he is promoting.
Trump said his son, Eric, told him not to respond to De La Hoya's charges that he cheated on two different holes two years ago at Trump National golf course in Los Angeles. But he said he had to say something to defend himself because golf is a game built on integrity and honor.
"He's absolutely lying," Trump said. "Golf is an important thing, and I felt I had to say something."
Trump said De La Hoya called him Wednesday, not to apologize but to offer him tickets to the fight he is promoting Saturday in Las Vegas between Amir Khan and Canelo Alvarez. Trump, who was at Gennady Golovkin's fight at Madison Square Garden in New York in October and is a big boxing fan, said he declined the tickets.
De La Hoya claimed Trump joined his group on the first tee at Trump National and promptly hit his first drive into the water, then hit two others before driving ahead and finding his ball in the middle of the fairway. On the next hole, he said Trump hit it in the bushes but the ball somehow ended up on the green close to the hole for a "gimme."
Trump put the longtime general manager at Trump National, Lili Amini, on the phone to say she had never seen her boss play with De La Hoya. She also said there is no water on the first hole at Trump National, so he could not have hit the ball there.
No letting up
The word "remorse" apparently is not in Houston Rockets guard Patrick Beverley's vocabulary.
Beverley, a former Arkansas Razorback, answered a challenge issued by former Houston Baptist commit Adriiana Jackson as the two went one-on-one on a basketball court at a Houston-area park.
A YouTube video posted Tuesday showed the 6-1 Beverley did not go easy on the 5-1 Jackson.
"You might not get the ball the whole game," Beverley said after blowing past Jackson for a layup.
"Can we just shoot jump shots?" Jackson asked out of frustration.
"No," Beverley replied.
"He is, by all regards, one of the most reliably crazy human beings to suit up in an NBA uniform in the 21st century," Dan Carson wrote for FoxSports.com. "And that part doesn't turn off when some kid steps up at the local park talking about, 'Let's play one-on-one.'
"Rest assured: Patrick Beverley doesn't become not Patrick Beverley when the stakes are lowered, as evidenced in this video."
Sports on 05/06/2016