Less than a day after the storming of the Capitol, President Donald Trump awarded three golfers the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias received the highest US civilian award posthumously. She won ten majors and two gold track and field medals at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Zaharias died in 1956 at the age of 45.
The Swedish Annika Sörenstam and the South African Gary Player received the award in the White House. Sörenstam won 10 majors, Player nine. Fifty to sixty people were reportedly in attendance at the presentation by Trump, and the ceremony proceeded without discord.
Sörenstam and Trump in 2002.
Foto: Getty Images
The White House announced in March that Sörenstam, Player and Zaharias would receive the medal, but the ceremony was postponed due to the corona crisis.
Trump, himself a great golf enthusiast and owner of several courses around the world, already awarded the Medal of Freedom to golf star Tiger Woods in 2019. He has already played golf with both Sörenstam and Player.
.
