National Park Service To Begin Negotiating With National Links Trust To Restore DC Muni's

Nice work here by Andy Johnson at TheFriedEgg.com to explain the next big step for the National Links Trust’s effort to save some architectural gems.

National Links Trust (NLT), a non-profit headed by Michael McCartin and Will Smith, plans to make a multi-year, multi-million-dollar investment in the East Potomac, Rock Creek Park, and Langston golf properties.

As The Fried Egg previously reported, NLT has partnered with management company Troon Golf, developer Mike Keiser, and a trio of leading design firms. Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design hopes to restore Walter Travis’s reversible layout at East Potomac; Hanse Golf Course Design has agreed to improve Rock Creek Park, a William Flynn design; and Beau Welling, a senior design consultant for Tiger Woods’s TGR Design, looks to renovate Langston.

Kudos to all involved fr putting in the time and effort.

A few of Andy’s past contributions to highlighting this cause:

The Fried Egg Podcast, Episode 112: Michael McCartin and East Potomac Golf Course (November 25, 2018)

“The High Stakes of Municipal Design” (January 2, 2019)

“A Brief History of Municipal Golf in D.C.” (January 8, 2019)

The Fried Egg Podcast, Episode 132: Introducing the National Links Trust (April 23, 2019)

“Doak and Hanse Come on Board in D.C.” (September 3, 2019)

A little history

When it opened in 1921, East Potomac Golf Course set out to be “the model public playground.” The reversible nine-hole Walter Travis design was an immediate hit among Washington, D.C., residents and led to a surge in enthusiasm for golf. The East Potomac facility quickly expanded from nine to 18 reversible Travis holes in 1925. Still unable to meet demand, the facility added yet another nine—this one designed by William Flynn—in 1927. In its first year of operation as a 27-hole facility, East Potomac logged over 157,000 nine-hole rounds. East Potomac was so well-regarded that President Warren Harding would often play it instead of his home club at Chevy Chase.