Late Friday evening, NOTUS dropped a story that this weekend would be the last for public golf at East Potomac Links, at least for the foreseeable future. The course would close and the National Links Trust’s tenure overseeing the property would end after the last tee time on Sunday. The sources said this closure was to begin the initial maintenance work that would be a prelude to the major renovations led by Tom Fazio. Yet as of Monday morning, the National Links Trust flag was still flying at East Potomac and, according to one Reddit poster, the course’s parking lot was about half full.
If the NOTUS story was correct – and there’s no reason to doubt their reporting since the outlet, which cited multiple sources and has been at the forefront of coverage of the Trump administration’s attempt to take over golf in the District since an in-depth report back in February – what caused this stay of execution is, like so many of this administration’s actions, unclear (see: Iran, War with). The NLT, who reportedly would have kept their lease at Rock Creek, has not heard anything from the government, only adding to the mystery.
So, what’s going on here?
After months of silence on the issue, the timing of this story is interesting. This past weekend, Trump’s Doral property in Miami hosted the PGA’s Cadillac Championship, by most accounts an underwhelming signature event, while Trump National in Virginia will play host to a LIV Golf event this coming weekend. Either event, but particularly the former, would have been a great opportunity to announce a grand bargain; one in which Trump would get East Potomac and the NLT would keep Rock Creek. But what of Langston, the home of Black golf?
NOTUS’s story on Friday followed a report from the Washington Post earlier Friday that Langston Golf Course was offered to the Washington Commanders charity to manage as part of their RFK Stadium redevelopment. The team confirmed that they had been approached and all but declined the opportunity. Since a grand bargain requires more than one party to be on board, it’s possible that someone in the administration with an incentive to get things moving leaked the story to NOTUS in order to shake things loose.
If the Commanders declining the opportunity wasn’t enough of a roadblock, late Sunday night, lawyers representing local golfers (including the publisher of this website) and the DC Preservation League filed for an emergency status conference or a preliminary injunction. The status conference was granted and presided over by a slightly perturbed Judge Ana Reyes first thing Monday morning. While denying the plaintiff’s request for a temporary restraining order, Judge Reyes, who was out of the country, was clear. No work beyond simple maintenance, for example pruning 10 trees, was to be done without the government notifying the plaintiffs (i.e. the DCPL’s counsel).
This was, admittedly, about all Judge Reyes could do because nothing was ostensibly happening, at least on the courses themselves. Still, as Reyes noted herself, “there’s a lot of smoke and a little bit of flame” that something is happening behind the scenes, likely in the Oval Office.
The source of this smoke was a Washington Post story on Saturday that Trump donors were being solicited to contribute to a non-profit, The National Garden of American Heroes Foundation. The solicitation came in the form of a rendering of both East and West Potomac Parks. The former is naturally covered in one (seemingly incomplete) golf course that covers the entirety of Hains Point, including the surrounding road, tennis center, mini golf course, and green space. The latter shows the National Garden of American Heroes, a statue garden that Trump first discussed during his first term.
None of this is possible without considerable work on the ground, which Judge Reyes is requiring she review before anything moves forward. She said “Pretending to follow the rules and then asking for forgiveness isn’t going to work for me.” If bulldozers show up she promised “severe consequences.”
So, for your golfing interest, here’s where things stand as of publishing:
- East Potomac is open for golf and under some kind of judicial oversight.
- Langston is open but its future is the most unclear.
- Rock Creek is open as of May 1, with its lease status unresolved and its recently begun renovations halted.
Beltway Golfer recommends you get your rounds in while you can at all three.
As if to put an exclamation mark on all this, and perhaps throw some accelerant on the embers, President Trump’s helicopter circled East Potomac Sunday evening as NLT founder Mike McCartin was interviewed by local news. The golden hour sky was ablaze, eerily matching the mock-ups his fundraiser had passed around.
If you’ve read this far, I have an article in the inaugural issue of Beltway Golfer that outlines the future of golf in the District. Since, according to the National Parks Service’s counsel, nothing has changed regarding the status of any of the courses, the piece is still relevant and, I hope, accurate. The magazine looks beautiful and is available for purchase here.
-Rowan Kane
