The Trump administration and the National Links Trust announced a deal over the weekend that will keep Washington, D.C.’s three municipal golf courses open, ending a heated standoff between the sides.
At the end of 2025, the administration terminated a 50-year lease agreement the National Park Service had with the National Links Trust, the nonprofit tasked with overseeing and operating the three courses in the District.
The decision put a stop to a renovation to Rock Creek Park Golf Course that was already underway, and the futures of Rock Creek, Langston Golf Course and East Potomac Golf Links were up in the air.
In the new agreement, the National Links Trust will retain jurisdiction of all three courses and has signed new long-term leases for Langston and Rock Creek, while President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, whose department includes the park service, will oversee a redesign of East Potomac.
The original Rock Creek renovation will resume, and the NLT said in a statement that all three courses “will remain open, accessible and affordable for the residents and communities that depend on them.”
The sides struck this deal soon after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration could not shut down East Potomac unilaterally or renovate it without proper notice.
“We thank President Trump for reaching an agreement that keeps Washington, D.C.’s three public golf courses open, welcoming and affordable community gathering places for DC residents and all golfers. We look forward to continuing to provide our expertise in operating and managing these beloved and historic courses and to making D.C. proud,” the NLT’s statement said in part.
Donald Trump’s career as a golf tycoon long predates his political career. His holdings include Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey, the site of one U.S. Women’s Open, and Trump National Doral outside Miami, which returned to the PGA Tour schedule this year with last week’s Cadillac Championship. LIV Golf has played at both those courses along with Trump National Golf Club Washington, D.C., a private course in Northern Virginia that doesn’t fall under the NLT purview.
Tom Fazio, a touted golf course architect who has worked on four previous Trump courses, will be tapped to work on the East Potomac project, which Trump sees as a future major championship or Ryder Cup venue, according to a Golf Digest report.
