Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban responded to Donald Trump's criticism of his golf game in an exclusive comment to DailyMail.com.
“I can outdrive him by 100 yards,” the 66-year-old Cuban said of Trump, 78, in an email to DailyMail.com.
The bickering billionaires' animosity toward each other intensified over the weekend when Trump curiously claimed that Cuban has “really low club head speed” and is “not an athlete at all.”
“Mark Cuban is a loser,” Trump wrote in a Fact Social post about Cuban, who briefly considered being the former president's running mate in 2016 before the two became bitter enemies. “He no longer answered her phone calls while he was in the White House and became rebellious. A weak and pathetic “bully” has nothing to do. Really low club head speed, totally a non-athlete!'
Unlike the golf-obsessed Trump, Cuban has never really been identified as a golfer. However, he claims he can easily outperform the former president, who has always prided himself on his ability off the tee.
Mark Cuban speaks at a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris
Trump during a round of golf at his Turnberry course on May 2, 2023 in Turnberry, Scotland
Trump has taken to touting his own prowess on the golf course while criticizing the games of his political and social rivals.
Previously, during his debate against current president and former Democratic candidate Joe Biden, Trump said that the 81-year-old “can't hit the ball 50 yards.”
Trump then boasted that he had won two championships on his own fields.
“To do that, you have to be pretty smart and be able to hit the ball from a distance,” Trump said.
Trump's handicap was listed at 2.5 in June 2021.
The former Actuality Reveals star has received praise for his golf from political allies such as South Carolina Senator Lyndsey Graham and several former tour professionals.
“He can really hit the ball,” PGA legend Ernie Els said after witnessing Trump make a hole-in-one in 2022. “He makes good contact. He has a good swing. Like any amateur, you have to practice the short game. I keep talking to him about his chip. It's a pretty good putter. In his time he had to be a 4 or 5 handicap. Today he is probably 10 or 12 years old.”
The Republican presidential candidate said the minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks has “really low clubhead speed” and “is not an athlete at all.”
Trump has also played with players such as Jack Nicklaus and Brooks Koepka, who have praised his play.
However, Trump allegedly gained a reputation for cheating at a club in Westchester, New York, where caddies compare him to Pelé for his habit of kicking the ball to improve his lying.
“…the caddies got so used to seeing him kick the ball back into the fairway that they gave him a nickname: ‘Pele,’” Rick Reilly wrote in his 2019 book, Commander in Cheat.
Cuban, a longtime investor with assets in technology and the Web, bought a majority stake in the Mavs from Ross Perot Jr. in 2000 for $285 million. Since then, the team won an NBA championship in 2011 and sold a majority stake to Sheldon Adelson's widow Miriam for $3.5 billion, retaining a 27 percent stake in the team.
Trump drives a golf cart at Trump Turnberry Golf Courses in Scotland in May 2023
Interestingly, Adelson is one of Trump's top donors and recently donated $100 million to his campaign as part of an effort to support Israel amid its war with Palestine.
Cuban not only supports Kamala Harris' presidential candidacy, but also actively supports the vice president on the campaign trail.
Typically, Cuban attacks Trump's business acumen, his understanding of tariffs and his failure to fulfill his 2016 campaign promise to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it.
'This man has so little knowledge about tariffs that he thinks China pays for it. “This is the same guy who also thought Mexico would pay for the wall,” Cuban told an audience in the battleground state of Wisconsin.
'Did Mexico pay for that wall?' Cuban asked the crowd, who responded 'no.'