This year’s tournament was held at one of the Trump Organization’s golf courses but the US president found more friends than enemies at Bedminster

Park Sung-hyun overcame a three-shot deficit to win the US Women’s Open on Sunday afternoon at Trump National Golf Club in the suburban New Jersey hamlet of Bedminster 45 miles west of New York City, but it was the US president who was the center of attention as he took in America’s most prestigious women’s golf championship for a third straight day from a custom-built skybox overlooking the 18th green.

Moments after Park tapped in to complete a final-round five-under 67, the LPGA rookie made her way to the clubhouse as Donald Trump applauded enthusiastically alongside his wife Melania and son Eric, joined shortly afterwards by Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and two of their children.

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The president arrived at the golf club on Friday afternoon after returning from his Bastille Day trip to Paris, marking his fourth visit to the bucolic township since taking office. The fishbowl-like enclosure offered the public a rare minute-by-minute of the president, who was easily identifiable even at distance in his red Make America Great Again cap. He entertained a number of players in the box including Lexi Thompson, the top ranked American and world No3 who openly supported him during the campaign.

Among the spectators gathered around the skybox were four protesters from UltraViolet, an advocacy group formed to combat sexism and expand women’s rights, who wore purple shirts that read, “USGA: Dump Sexist Trump”.

A majority of the protests surrounding the event had taken place at the public library in Bedminster four miles down the road from the sprawling 500-acre grounds of Trump National, but on Sunday members of several protest groups paid $45 for grounds passes to take their message inside the gates.

“We wanted to be able to look him in the eye,” said Melissa Byrne of Philadelphia, an UltraViolet volunteer who began organizing the protest nine months ago when Trump was shown making crude comments about women in a leaked Access Hollywood tape. “You could tell he saw us. He looked at us, and then somebody else looked and had this really annoyed look. Security gets concerned, so we made sure the president was safe in his box before we removed our shirts. He came over to the glass to wave to people, and he looked at us.”

Byrne said hundred of thousands of their members signed a petition calling on the USGA and the LPGA to move the tournament and no longer work with the Trump Organization, which owns a number of golf courses in the United States and around the world.

UltraViolet’s weekend-long protest also included the commissioning of a plane to fly over the course on Friday with a banner reading: USGA: STAND WITH WOMEN, NOT TRUMP. Byrne said Trump’s arrival on Friday ruled out the aerial protest due to FAA regulations, but they were able to reschedule it for Thursday.

“I like millions am a survivor of many instances of sexual harassment and sexual assault,” said Hope Singsen, an UltraViolet volunteer from New York City. “And I’m here to express my disgust that the USGA is using women’s sport to elevate, legitimize and celebrate a sexual predator.”

But those speaking out against Trump were far outnumbered by his supporters, including Jennifer Brand, a mother of three from nearby Branchburg, who was thrilled to have a chance to see the president up close and “didn’t see the point” of the protests. “I don’t understand it,” Brand said. “As a woman, I don’t think he’s sexist, I don’t think he’s denigrating to them and I don’t think [the protestors] show support for the women that are here playing.”

Spencer Horn, 24, from the nearby borough of Mendham, said he was there both to watch the golf and for a chance of seeing the president.

“I used to play golf and I enjoy watching it occasionally and it’s gorgeous out. I live close by and I can’t get in here any other time, so why not?” Horn said. “It sounds stupid but he actually looks better in person than he does on TV. It’s a little surreal.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump waves to the crowd during the final round of the US Open. Photograph: Kelvin Kuo/USA Today Sports

“When we were at the inauguration it felt like there was such a presence of opposition. Whereas now, generally across the country I think there’s just more of a sentiment of acceptance, of moving forward in a united direction.”



Tom Harrigan, 24, from nearby Basking Ridge, was outside Trump Tower on election night and traveled with Horn to the inauguration. “I was pretty surprised,” Harrigan said. “I thought Hillary was going to win and thought we’d probably eating grass soup right now. Thank God, it turned out positively and I think we’re on the right track.”

While Sunday’s protest was peaceful and devoid of conflict, several Trump supporters expressed their displeasure with the demonstration, interrupting exchanges with reporters and loudly decrying the media as “scumbags” and “fake news”.

A Trump supporter named Victoria K, who declined to give her last name saying the “fake news media” would distort her remarks, shouted over members of the UltraViolet group as they spoke quietly with media.

“What are you afraid of? I’m an Asian-American immigrant and I feel like the country is better than ever,” she said, turning her focus on the media. “I understand [the media] is working for a paycheck, but at some point you draw a line. You’re still American. This man didn’t have to do this [run for president]. And the crap that the left is putting him through and his family. I’m just waiting for Barron Trump to have to get lawyers.

“Look in the mirror. He’s a good man. He didn’t collude with anybody. I didn’t go into the booth and say, ‘Oh my God, Russians made me vote for him’. That wasn’t even a story then. And it’s disgusting.”

The USGA, which awarded the tournament to Bedminster in 2012, said it was too late to relocate the tournament when the backlash over Trump started last year in earnest. USA Today reported last week that Trump threatened to sue the governing body if it moved the event.

“If the president of the United States decides to attend the US Women’s Open championship, we welcome him,” the USGA said in a statement on Friday morning. “It is the first time a sitting president has attended the US Women’s Open, and is only the third occurrence in our entire championships history.”

The previous two visits of a sitting president attending a US national golf championship were Warren Harding in 1921 and Bill Clinton in 1997 at the US Open men’s championships. But Trump’s promotion of the event with eight separate tweets about the tournament over the past three days raised concerns he was using his platform as chief executive to promote an event from which the Trump Organization stands to gain financially.