My colleague Alan Bastable visited the nation’s capital this week to check out the golf action D.C.-style, in federal court and on the East Potomac Golf Links. I’ve been to the course twice myself, once to play it and a second time because it was in the news, courtesy of President Trump. Trump’s golf activity often becomes part of the public discourse. In 2017, Senator Lindsey Graham spent a half-hour giving me a blow-by-blow account of the 73 he said Trump shot at Trump National Washington — or was it a 74?
What’s happening now was inevitable: Trump’s passion for golf and his penchant for building things — and golf courses are high on that list — would find a way into his presidency and therefore become news. This next statement comes from a place of golf, not politics: It’s a shame that, in his blow-it-up plans for East Potomac Golf Links, Trump is imposing his golfing tastes on a public course sitting on federal land managed by the National Park Service. This is a PSA in the name of constituency services.
The golf at East Potomac, a manmade island of dubious buoyancy, is public in every sense. If ever there was a time to ask the golfing public there what it wants — instead of telling golfers what they’re going to get — this is it.
What makes the collection of five courses at Bethpage State Park on Long Island so remarkable is that there is something for everyone there. You almost have that at East Potomac, where there are 36 holes plus a mini-golf course and a driving range. What’s missing is the elite, “championship” course that Bethpage has — the fearsome Bethpage Black. Trump’s plan would leave the manmade Hains Point peninsula with one elite, “championship” course, a single 18-hole course that would play over 7,600 yards, all stretched out.
That’s cool, if you’re a sub-75 amateur golfer, if you’re a club-champ golfer, if you’re a tournament golfer. And, yes, people line up, and break their credit cards in the process, to play TPC Sawgrass and Pebble Beach and Pinehurst No. 2, without a prayer of breaking 100. There’s something to be said for aspirational golf, I-played-where-the-pros-play and all of that. Trump, as a golf entrepreneur, has a keen understanding of that. By all appearances, that’s what he wants at East Potomac.
The thing is, it isn’t his.
3 things I’m thinking
Amateur architect: This is the time of year when you can play golf-course architect. You’re playing alone and late on a cool day when there’s nobody out there. You combine the second and third holes into a . . . par-6. Second shot over the second green and into the early part of the third fairway. Followed by a semi-duff, in this example. Maybe it should be a 7? Yeah, it’s a par-7. You can do it. You’re the architect.
Golf reveals all: Speaking of singleton golf, my great friend and former Sports Illustrated colleague John Garrity was playing his home course by himself a while back, carrying his bag (at age 79) as he always does. Going up a hill, he suddenly felt very, very weak. He wondered if he might be having a heart attack. So he didn’t finish the hole and walked past the pro shop and to his car — with his golf clubs. That is so John. Turns out, he was having a heart attack. He had heart surgery. He’s doing fine, PTD! (Praise the docs.) He said, “Why I didn’t call the pro shop and ask them to come get me, I don’t know.” Because that is so not John. I reminded him of the time that he, our friend Alan Shipnuck and I were playing Erin Hills on an exceptionally buggy August night — and Shipnuck called into the shop to ask somebody to come out with some . . . Off! We laughed. That was so Alan.
