Greg Sankey provides new details on golf meeting with President Donald Trump

Reports of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey playing golf with President Donald Trump emerged on Sunday, only to be confirmed on Monday. Sankey has openly discussed his outing with President Trump, a big meeting between the leader of the country and one of the more influential people in college athletics.

While the details of Trump and Sankey’s conversation are of interest, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum wanted to know about the outing himself. Sankey did have his golf game on display recently in Birmingham alongside other SEC coaches. Not your typical day on the course, there were trends Sankey noticed quite quickly.

“I slept restlessly because your mind conjures up all kinds of things,” Sankey said Monday via The Paul Finebaum Show. “Being on the driving range first, adjacent to the President, wanting to make sure I made solid contact repeatedly, given the importance of first impressions. And then, there are an enormous number of people around, obviously for security and communication purposes. So the first lesson was — always stay approximal to the President. Otherwise, you’re behind a whole lot of golf carts and you may not be able to move very quickly.”

President Trump is known for his love of golf, still playing throughout his time in the White House. Sankey revealed Trump did play well on Sunday, highlighting one moment where both of them had looks at birdie. One rolled the putt in while the other did not have such luck.

“I don’t know if Secret Service calls if I give away the wrong thing but I think it’s fine to say I high-fived the President, I fist bumped the President after good shots,” Trump said. “Others in our group did as well. He played well. There was a point where he had a birdie putt, I had a birdie putt. He made his and I made sure to miss mine. That seemed like the wisest thing to do. I think mine was more of a skill deficit.”

Overall, Sankey came away impressed with how interested President Trump is in sports. Multiple SEC games have hosted him throughout the years, as have neutral-site College Football Playoff venues. Questions were asked and perspectives were shared on issues surrounding college athletics, making for an overall successful day on the course.

“Very conversational, very interested in sports,” Sankey said. “Had been to a UFC event the night before. So, talked through some of the folks he met there. Talked about college sports directly and sharing perspective and asking questions.”