If you thought “Gold Boy”, the short-lived mascot of the Players Championship who made his glimmering bow at TPC Sawgrass in 2022, was cringe and controversial, ba-ba-ba-baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
There is a new Gold Man on @pgatour @TrumpDoral pic.twitter.com/ucR4FbO9Vz
— Adam Schupak (@AdamSchupak) April 28, 2026
https://twitter.com/Terminator51514/status/2049159967765070093
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That is what greeted players, staff, fans and media as they arrived at Trump Doral for the Cadillac Championship this week. The new signature event marks the first time in a decade the PGA Tour has returned to the Donald Trump-badged course, and they received a bright (some might say blinding) welcome from the 15-foot-tall statue of the current president of the United States.
While it’s perfectly reasonable to assume that Trump commissioned the tribute to himself, it was in fact the long-running project of Patriot Token, a right-wing crypto coin that is hoping the statue will encourage the buy-in of big-money investors.
The PATRIOT Statue of @realDonaldTrump was successfully installed last night at Trump National Doral in preparation for the PGA’s Cadillac Championship. We’ve heard the PGA players will arrive soon to start practicing!!!
We couldn’t contain this beast it’s already been published… pic.twitter.com/Sf3eGEHi72
— Patriot Token (@Patriot_Erc20) April 24, 2026
With Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies currently in freefall (BTC and ETH are down 33.39 percent and 44.81 percent, respectively, over the past six months), Patriot Token has an uphill climb ahead of them, especially with a giant statue of a 79-year-old man strapped to their back. Even golf fans on X, which skews broadly right due to the influence of Trump benefactor and owner Elon Musk, were split on the gaudy totem.
this is disgusting. I think many more players should cancel their appearance
— Perfecto Cortez (@perfectocortez) April 28, 2026
What I like about it is that it’s subtle
— Scotty Holdridge (@holdridge_scott) April 28, 2026
The pigeons are smiling!
— Karl Koch (@KarlKoc21102064) April 28, 2026
It's looking fantastic. A movement called patriot built this for the best president ever
— Rōnin (@TheDeFiRonin) April 28, 2026
https://twitter.com/MagagicianTX/status/2049163618168574217
No one better ever remove it
— paula wilson (@pwilsondtf) April 28, 2026
Loathe it or love it, the statue represents one of the primary reasons the PGA Tour stepped away from Trump Doral in the first place: politicisation. The statue is a partisan statement designed to raise capital for an unaffiliated investment group. It’s hard to imagine tour leadership, nor its various financial partners, will be thrilled with the appearance of the literal and figurative lightning rod, but here’s hoping it won’t cast too long a shadow on golf’s much-anticipated return to the Blue Monster.
