Pardon the extended analogy ahead, but as President Donald Trump is easily the best golfer among all presidents, it plays well.

Don’t believe me about the best golfer assessment? Ask ChatGPT or any AI agent. It isn’t even remotely a close question.

Having been a caddy since 1966, I’ve carried lots of clubs, raked plenty of traps and held many pins. “Pipeline Joe Day” was the best senior I’ve ever caddied for, and he earned his nickname among the golf gophers because he drove 16 or 17 out of 18 fairways or greens well into his 80s, but as he lost distance when he crossed over the octogenarian mark, the birdies mostly went away. Even the best short games among seniors can save par but won’t make many birdies.

TRUMP IS WINNING EVERY BATTLE IN IRAN—AND RISKING THE WAR THAT MATTERS

President Trump can routinely shave a stroke off of par on any given hole, and it wouldn’t surprise if there is an eagle or two every month of rounds.

But, as no golfer is perfect, the president is bound to have had some awful rounds and some very bad holes. Not “Tin Cup” Kevin Costner bad, but bad. He must go “OB” on his drive at least occasionally, and a three putt on top of hitting three off the tee…well, that’s usually triple bogey land for even very good amateurs and most pros.

Like even the greatest golfers, every president yanks a decision or three almost every round. If a president has ever had a perfect month of perfect days, I’m unaware of it. So mistakes will be made, and President Trump made a big one this past weekend.

TRUMP WARNS IRAN FIGHTING ISN’T OVER AS HE VOWS US WILL ‘WIN’ AS TALKS FADE

“Reliable reports from a variety of sources confirm that President Trump had ordered a major escalation of combat with Iran for this past weekend only to call it off late Saturday night. Some of our allies were primed to participate, but others urged a delay.”

It is the second time President Trump has called off a return to major combat operations that would continue uninterrupted for the weeks it would take to try and break the rump regime in Iran run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC.”) Pay almost no attention to the civilian puppets of the rump regime. It is a military dictatorship inside Iran now.

“We just want to win,” President Trump declared at the Cabinet meeting in Camp David last week. That was a clear and candid declaration of the end game: A return to the genuinely open Strait of Hormuz coupled with a verifiable abandonment of the Iranian regime’s decades-long drive for nuclear weapons.

MORNING GLORY: PRESIDENT TRUMP, IRAN AND NAPOLEON’S STILL-RELEVANT MAXIM

President Trump knows that the IRGC lies and that the IRGC cheats. He has said many times that the regime’s negotiators will spend hours talking about the nuclear program in closed meetings, and then immediately walk to the microphones and declare the nuclear program was not discussed at all in the same meetings.

“They are scum,” he has said. Secretary of State Rubio has declared, “These people are crazy.” Both are correct.

The original MOU was worth a try. I always thought it signaled halftime in the battle and that after the midterm elections in the U.S., President Trump would demand the immediate implementation of a rigorous inspections regime at every site known or suspected of harboring part of Iran’s nuclear weapons program — including “Pickaxe Mountain” — as the necessary conditions without which major combat operations would resume and continue indefinitely to batter the shaky regime until it crumbled in real time.

But the IRGC came out of the locker room first and broke the MOU. Since then, they have again broken an agreement to trade a ceasefire for an open Strait and layered on a surprise attack on our military in Jordan. They are the polar opposite of “good faith” bargainers and always have been.

There is no reason to believe that the IRGC will not lie and cheat again. It is who they are and who they have always been since Ayatollah Khomeini led the revolution to topple the Shah in 1979. Since then, the Iranian regime’s negotiators have fooled both President Carter and President Obama in a comprehensive fashion and other presidents to some degree, but they have never fooled Donald Trump.

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Until this past weekend. The president launched a huge slice past the out-of-bounds markers. Everyone saw it. Everyone knows the president is hitting three on the tee now.

Can he scramble and save par? Yes, because it’s a long par 5. Can he win the match in a decisive way? Yes, but not if he keeps playing this way. Not if he gets the yips again.

Everyone who has ever caddied for a very good golfer in match play should know the truth of the scorecard mid-round, as well as the potential to turn that match around, sometimes quickly. But only the president can do that. Not our allies. Not his advisors. Certainly not the legacy media.

Donald Trump has been surprising and indeed startling his critics for his nearly dozen years in politics. Hope he has at least one more huge surprise in store.

Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of “The Hugh Hewitt Show” heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.