Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz posted a two-minute golf video on X that drew immediate mockery for a wildly inflated distance claim, a half-swing with no follow-through, and the kind of wardrobe choice that raises more questions than it answers.
Walz filmed himself playing the sixth hole at Northwest Angle Country Club in Minnesota and shared the clip Monday. The hole is a 261-yard Par-4. Walz said he had 100 yards left on his second shot, which would put his drive at 161 yards. But the video itself told a different story, one that OutKick's Zach Dean flagged in his Monday column.
Dean noted the governor's tee shot looked nothing like a 220-yard drive. "No shot that first shot went 220. None. It was a half swing at best with no finish!" he wrote. The arithmetic didn't help Walz either. If the hole plays 261 yards and Walz had 100 yards remaining, his drive traveled 161 yards, not the 220 his video appeared to suggest. Dean chalked the gap up to "Learning Center math."
Walz finished the hole with a two-putt bogey. But the golf wasn't the only detail that caught attention. Dean zeroed in on the governor's outfit: a quarter-zip pullover worn without an undershirt. "Diabolical move by the governor. Absolutely psycho behavior," Dean wrote.
The lighthearted clip landed at a moment when Walz's record faces far more serious scrutiny. Federal prosecutors estimate that of the $18 billion Minnesota distributed across 14 taxpayer-funded programs since 2018, as much as half could be fraudulent, the Washington Free Beacon reported. That is a staggering figure, potentially $9 billion in taxpayer money lost to fraud on Walz's watch.
Walz announced in January that he would not seek reelection as governor. At a press conference, he conceded that elected leaders "should be concerned about fraud" and said "the buck does stop with me", then left without taking questions.
The fraud scandal has drawn federal attention. Vice President J.D. Vance sent a fraud referral on Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to the Justice Department, requesting a criminal inquiry into the administration's handling of the programs.
A separate oversight report found that the Walz administration shielded fraud suspects by branding the auditors who flagged the problems as racists, a tactic that effectively shut down internal accountability while billions continued flowing out the door.
And the controversies extend beyond fiscal mismanagement. Walz pardoned an illegal immigrant convicted of sexually assaulting a child in what critics described as an effort to block the man's deportation, a decision the governor later doubled down on publicly.
Dean's column also highlighted a ratings comparison that should embarrass the NBA. The NFL's Hall of Fame game, a preseason exhibition that most football fans treat as background noise, drew 7 million viewers last Thursday.
The NBA, by contrast, averaged 6.35 million viewers across all of its playoff games this past season, broadcast across five platforms: ABC, ESPN, Prime Video, NBC, and Peacock. That figure was the league's best since 1998. And a meaningless August preseason football game still beat it.
Dean did not sugarcoat it. "The NFL's most useless preseason game surpassed it," he wrote. The gap between the two leagues' cultural footprints continues to widen, and the NBA's best effort in a generation still couldn't match the NFL coasting.
The column also spotlighted the Savannah Bananas, the barnstorming baseball entertainment team known for trick plays and choreographed routines. Russell Wilson, identified in a linked OutKick headline as a Super Bowl champion, reportedly took a swing with the Bananas, though Dean's column offered no further detail on that appearance.
Dean saved some of his best praise for outfielder Mark Coley II, who made a remarkable catch over the weekend. Coley knocked a ball back into the field of play and grabbed it on the way down. "10/10. No notes. Excellent baseball play, excellent baseball IQ. Well done," Dean wrote.
A photo caption accompanying the column noted that Walz "was mocked on social media following his suggestion he might run for president in 2028." The idea of a presidential campaign from a governor who abandoned his reelection bid under the weight of a multi-billion-dollar fraud scandal would be remarkable in any era.
Conservative influencer Nick Shirley posted on X after Walz dropped his reelection bid: "I ENDED TIM WALZ." Whether or not that claim holds up, Walz's political trajectory has plainly shifted. He went from the 2024 vice-presidential ticket to a governor who couldn't face voters again in his own state, all while federal investigators examine billions in suspected fraud that moved through programs his administration oversaw.
Posting a golf video while that cloud hangs overhead is a choice. A man who can't get his yardage right on a Par-4 probably shouldn't expect anyone to trust his numbers on anything else.
