On Thursday, the Department of the Interior and the National Links Trust announced a deal that will shape the future of all three of Washington’s federal golf courses. Here is the announcement first shared by Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior. Here is the statement released by the National Links Trust.
For anyone just tuning in: NLT is the nonprofit that has operated East Potomac, Rock Creek, and Langston on behalf of the National Park Service since 2020 after winning a competitive bidding process to do so. Earlier this year, the Trump administration terminated their lease at East Potomac, setting off a legal and political battle over the course’s future. NLT stayed on as interim operator of all three properties while negotiations played out. This agreement is the result.
First, Rock Creek and Langston
The best news is that NLT will move forward with the plans they have laid out for Rock Creek: a nine-hole course built from restored original Flynn holes, a separate short nine on much of the old back nine, a new clubhouse, and a double-decker lighted driving range. These plans have been exciting to watch develop, and the project is now back on the path to becoming real.
The announcement also keeps NLT at Langston, but the language in the announcement alludes to a potentially different picture than Rock Creek. Unlike Rock Creek, where NLT is plainly in the driver’s seat, Langston is described as a collaboration between NPS, NLT, and First Tee of Greater Washington, D.C., which has been relocated from its originally planned facility at Rock Creek to Langston. That move plants First Tee closer to communities that stand to benefit most from their programming, but it also potentially muddies the operational picture. What this collaborative structure means for NLT’s previously announced plans to bring in Beau Welling, who works closely with Tiger Woods, to lead the architectural renovation remains to be seen. The difference in phrasing between the two courses is worth paying attention to, and how this plays out at Langston.
The Washington Commanders partnership makes total sense. With the new stadium returning to the RFK site just across Benning Road, there should be no shortage of opportunities for the two properties to bring value to each other and to the surrounding community. We have also heard from multiple people that the Commanders were not in a position to move on the administration’s proposal that the charitable wing of the team run Langston, and instead played an instrumental role in ensuring NLT remain in place leading operations of the property.
For Rock Creek & Langston, this announcement is great news. Over the past few months, people openly wondered if the administration would shut both these properties down and repurpose them into something entirely new. So the fact that these will not only remain golf courses but NLT will have the opportunity to execute their vision has to be interpreted as great for DC golf.
Tepid excitement remains on both fronts, though, as the statement says Doug Bergum will appoint an advisory board to oversee all three renovations. How much input or say will this unnamed board have? Will its members have their own motives or desires for how these courses are updated? Who knows.
And Then There Is East Potomac
NLT will continue to operate East Potomac for the time being, but only until the administration commences its own renovation. When that day arrives remains anyone’s guess.
The joint statement describes the future East Potomac as “affordable and accessible.” While we have been told that there seems to have been a legitimate shift in intent from at least a few members on the administration on this, those words can stretch to mean almost anything. This means privatization has to be off the table, though I am not sure it was ever really on it. Affordability is relative. One person’s car payment is another’s affordable round of golf. And accessibility can simply mean the gates are open. But is it accessible to new golfers, junior golfers, the kind of golfers who are not really golfers yet, golfers without deep pockets? East Potomac has served all of those people for the past century.
From the statement: “Following this renovation, which will incorporate themes of the original Walter J. Travis design, East Potomac Golf Links will offer a top-tier 18-hole championship golf course capable of hosting pre-eminent tournament golf and offering players of all abilities an incredible experience in the heart of the Nation’s Capital and the National Mall. The property will also offer other playing opportunities and world-class practice and short-game facilities, as well as other recreational spaces.” The phrase “incorporate themes” is laughably nonsubstantive. “Other playing opportunities” is about as vague and noncommittal as language gets. Very little here suggests the administration has fundamentally rethought its plans. Their priorities still appear tilted toward hosting professional events, not serving the local golf community.
There is also a telling divergence on regulatory oversight. NLT’s statement notes that Acting NPS Director Jessica Bowron has declared that NPS will follow the same established compliance process used at Rock Creek for any large-scale work at East Potomac. While the administration’s announcement mentions compliance only for Rock Creek. The message is plain enough. NLT will be held to every bureaucratic permitting hoop that delayed these projects to begin with, while NLT will attempt to hold the administration to the same standard at East Potomac. That the administration omitted the compliance language for East Potomac, along with how they’ve operated with the infamous East Wing dirt pile, tells you what you need to know about how they will likely proceed.
And then there are the renderings. The fundraising documents leaked to the press last weekend showed the course extending to the seawall, eliminating Ohio Drive and swallowing roughly 50 acres of public parkland used by non-golfers for all manner of recreational activity. There is no reason the golf course needs to expand beyond its current footprint. Full stop.
Separate from this agreement, the lawsuit filed by the DC Preservation League, myself and another local golfer marches on. The analysis of the contaminants found within the dirt pile at East Potomac is in, and the results only reinforce what the suit has argued from the start: that permitting and compliance processes were skipped when the administration began work on the property. Judge Reyes is now in a position to ensure that whatever happens next at East Potomac is done in a compliant manner. This agreement between the Interior Department and NLT does not make that case go away, and it may end up being the most consequential check on the administration’s plans for the course.
Why NLT Did Not Sue
A lot of people who care about these courses have wondered why NLT did not file suit the moment the administration terminated their lease. Here is the reality of that calculus. If they had, they could have been tied up in the courts for months or years with no guarantee of a scenario that resulted in them being involved in any of these projects. Filing suit would have almost certainly removed NLT from any negotiation over the courses’ future, and Rock Creek and Langston would have wound up with a different operator entirely, assuming they remained golf courses at all. The same logic applied to their decision to keep running the courses on an interim basis these past four-plus months. Walking away would have meant losing their seat at the table.
NLT has been navigating a narrow corridor since the Trump administration fixed its attention on East Potomac. Staying in the game appears to have earned them long-term operating control of two of the three courses. The tradeoff: by entering into this partnership, NLT has almost certainly foreclosed any future lawsuit over the wrongful termination of their lease.
One more detail worth noting: “Through this partnership, supported by private contributions, these organizations will renovate and restore East Potomac Golf Links, Langston Golf Course, and Rock Creek Park Golf into the country’s premier public golf courses.” Safe to conclude this agreement includes funding that NLT would have otherwise had to continue to raise on its own.
The Biggest Question Is Time
We are two and a half years from the next presidential election. You have to imagine the administration wants the ceremonial first tee shot struck while Trump is still in office. What this property will look like or what stage of the renovation these courses are in on election day is anybody’s guess. Many local golfers, myself included, still fear that when the dust settles, what they see will bear no resemblance to what they have come to love about this place, and who it is built for will bear little resemblance to the people that have been enjoying it for decades.
-Alex Dickson
