The Courses at Andrews, often called the president’s course, 15 miles from the White House inside the secure perimeter of Joint Base Andrews, is getting a full-scale Nicklaus Design renovation. And thanks to a newly published federal environmental filing, we now know exactly what that means.
On May 1, the Department of the Air Force published a Finding of No Practicable Alternative for the proposed North Course at JBA, a required environmental step before construction can begin on a project that will touch wetlands and 100-year floodplain areas. The document, authored by the 316th Civil Engineer Squadron, lays out the scope, the design team, and the course specs for the first time on the public record.
President Trump announced the project on November 22, 2025, after flying over the courses aboard Marine One with Jack Nicklaus. Nicklaus, 85, spent nearly two hours on site that day. The White House called it the most significant renovation in the history of Andrews. What no one has said publicly is who’s paying for it. Financing, timeline, and full project scope remain undisclosed. The base has deferred all inquiries to the White House.
The Courses at Andrews currently operates two active 18-hole layouts and one decommissioned course. The East Course was originally built between 1948 and 1949, with design work by Frank Murray and Russell Roberts, and later reworked by Ed Ault around 1960 and Brian Ault in 2018. Gerald Ford became the first sitting president to play there in 1974. Obama was a regular. George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Biden all spent time on the courses. Trump is the only president since Ford who hasn’t actually played there, preferring his own properties in Virginia, New Jersey, and Florida.
The South Course, designed by Brian T. Ault and opened in 1998, plays 6,748 yards from the tips at par 72. It features a 14-acre man-made lake as a central design element and carries a 128 slope, slightly more demanding than the East. There’s also the West Course, once an 18-hole layout, that then became 9 for a few years and is now decommissioned. This past year the complex also added 10 covered bays with Toptracer technology, a notable upgrade to the practice facilities.
The FONPA filing confirms what the press coverage couldn’t: the North Course will be an 18-hole, par 72 layout stretching 7,536 yards from the tips. That’s longer than anything currently at Andrews and nearly 800 yards more than the South Course. For context, Congressional’s Blue Course played around 7,400 to 7,600 yards for the U.S. Open. The par 4 average on the North Course runs around 430 yards, and the back nine includes a 624-yard par 5. This is not a gentle military muni. It’s a Nicklaus layout that would hold up against anything in the DMV.
The design team includes Nicklaus Design, with Chris Cochran as design associate and John Shaughnessy as project architect. The project also appears to include two engineered retention ponds, new drought-tolerant Tahoma 31 turf on fairways with bentgrass greens, and a complete irrigation overhaul.
The bigger question however is what happens after the build. Golf courses on military installations exist under the Department of Defense’s Morale, Welfare, and Recreation program. They fall under Category C, meaning they are classified as revenue-generating activities expected to be largely self-sustaining. Unlike fitness centers or libraries, which are funded through congressional appropriations, military golf courses operate on Non Appropriated Funds, money generated by the courses themselves through green fees, memberships, pro shop sales, and food and beverage. Federal law explicitly prohibits the use of appropriated funds to equip, operate, or maintain a DoD golf course. The FONPA document itself references the need to “ensure financial viability of Non Appropriated Fund facilities.” So the question becomes whether the revenue that The Courses at Andrews can generate will be enough to maintain what Nicklaus has designed. A course built to this standard demands a conditioning budget to match, and that budget has to come from the operation itself.
A significant portion of the southeast section of the current active course complex will be decommissioned and replanted with trees. But the concept plan filed with the FONPA also shows future phases not part of this action: a renovated 18-hole South Course, a new practice and driving range, and perhaps the most noteworthy piece of the entire plan, a 9-hole ADA accessible short course labeled Warrior on the design documents. The Warrior course holes visible on the grassing plan appear to share some footprint with the current West Course area. An ADA-compliant golf course would be something unique in this region. There is no course in the DMV currently designed from the ground up for accessibility, and building one on a military installation, for a community that includes wounded veterans and disabled service members, carries a significance that goes well beyond the golf. None of those future phases have entered the environmental review process yet.
The FONPA filing triggers a 15-day public comment period from the May 1 publication date, meaning comments are due around May 16. Project documents are posted at jba.af.mil/About/Environmental-Mission/. The total wetland impact from the North Course is approximately 0.15 acres of non-jurisdictional wetlands, from bridge footings and culverts at four golf cart crossings on holes 12N, 13N, 14N, and 16N. No new impervious surfaces are being added.
The Andrews renovation does seem to sit inside a broader story, as the Trump administration also ended the National Links Trust lease for three public golf courses in Washington, including East Potomac Park, but the White House has said the two actions were unrelated. No construction solicitation has appeared on SAM.gov. No cost estimate is public. No funding source has been confirmed. But the environmental review is moving, the design team is named, the course specs are on the record, and the 8-foot PVC stakes marking future tee boxes, fairways, and greens are already in the ground at Andrews. This renovation certainly seems to happening and could get underway in a matter of weeks.
-Alex Dickson
