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A couple of high -profile South African golfers were thrown into a tense exchange in the White House on Wednesday.
Ernie Els and Retief Goosen joined Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, for an oval office meeting with President Donald Trump.
While the meeting between the two leaders had a cordial start, the tenor of the meeting took a notable turn when Trump faced Ramaphosa with a video that allegedly showed a serious treatment of white farmers. Trump also presented Ramaphosa documents that they said they were accounts of “thousands” murders of Afrikaners.
Ramaphosa offered multiple denials to the statements and made it clear that the statements made in the videos were not representatives of their government’s policies. Els and Goosen were taken to the discussion.
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President Donald Trump meets the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, May 21 in Washington. (AP/EVAN VUCCI)
Trump welcomed the golfers when he presented the South African president.
“I really appreciate you came. It really helps us in our thought process,” Trump said. “You two boys are fantastic,” Trump added. “What a group of South Africa golfers has had.”
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Els previously had the world number 1 golf ranking. He presented his passport and said he was a “proud South African” before referring to “the Apartheid era” and asking for unity.
“I know there was a lot of anger through the transition. There were many things in the apartheid days,” he said. “We grew up in the Apartheid era, but I don’t think two mistakes do the right thing.”
Retief went to Tees in one in the first round of the Galleri Classic in Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, on March 28, 2025. (Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun/USA Today Network through IMAGN images)
Els added that he was anxious to attend the meeting and expected him to be beneficial for his country.
“We really wanted to meet you, meet the administration and see forward because we still want to see our country flourish,” Els added.
Goosen was asked, a twice winner of the United States Open, about farms in South Africa.
“My dad was a real estate developer and a part -time farmer, and yes, some of his friends of his friends were killed. The farm continues to go. My brothers direct it, but it is a constant battle with the farms … They are trying to burn the farms, to pursue it.
Goosen said that their family members lived on farms had electric fences and lived in fear of crime.
“They left behind electric fences, you know, they try to be, at night, safe. But it is constant every time you go that something could happen … both have been attacked in their homes. My mother has been attacked in our house when I was 80 years old. It is difficult. But the boys live a great life despite everything that happens.”
Golfistas Retief Goosen and Ernie Els are in the Oval office during a meeting between President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House in Washington, DC, May 21, 2025. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Els and Goosen are well familiar with the president of the United States. Before Trump’s first mandate, he published a photo on his and Els’s social networks.
“Ernie Els and I at Trump National Doral,” subtitled the 2013 Facebook publication.
Trump is an avid golfer. Its real estate portfolio also includes golf course.
