DC Golf Course Restoration Threatens Affordable Access

·47 min·2 clips

East Potomac is “literally sinking into the Potomac river,” and half of the site was at risk.

Don Murphy starts with chronology. He names Langston, East Potomac, and Rock Creek, then walks through the National Park Service request for proposals and why the lease matters. The National Links Trust enters as a nonprofit tied to affordable municipal golf, so the restoration question quickly turns from course work to public purpose: what a long-term rebuild preserves, and what it might change. Michael Williams adds the practical caution. He accepts that championship-quality public golf can exist, but he pushes back on using Torrey Pines as an easy template for D.C. The price comparison is the catch. At Torrey Pines, residents pay differently from many visitors, and the guest cites roughly $300-plus rounds for some players alongside a lower resident rate. East Potomac sits in another world. Williams notes that nine holes there can cost $18 and treats that as almost startlingly cheap. The federal courses work differently too. Anyone who shows up pays the same price, with no residence check. That equal-price idea matters. Murphy and Williams are not arguing against restoration; the courses need work, and East Potomac is described as gradually sinking back toward the Potomac River. Their worry is public mission. Better courses sound good until affordable public golf becomes the thing that got improved out of the picture. Murphy closes by putting the courses back in civic terms: taxpayers own them, restoration should answer to that, and concerned listeners can contact their representative and the White House.

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