Golf experts debunk the Trump administration’s rationale for seizing public courses
05 January
President Donald Trump on his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course on July 28, 2022 (Image: Shutterstock)
President Donald Trump's administration seized control of the public golf courses in Washington, D.C. under what one expert is calling dubious circumstances.
Garrett Morrison, of Fried Egg Golf, a ten-year old newsletter for golf aficionados, explained that there were three reasons Trump's Department of the Interior gave when accusing the National Links Trust (NLT) of violating the 50-year lease with the government to manage and renovate the three courses across the District of Columbia.
"It’s worth assessing them one by one," Morrison wrote.
The first was the accusation that the NLT is in breach of contract because they didn't perform the renovations that it said it would by the timeline it gave.
The addendum to the lease "Exhibit D" gives the timeline that the Interior Department was referencing. It claimed it would finalize renovations of Rock Creek by 2022, Langston by 2024 and East Potomac by 2027.
"I disagree with the DOI’s description of the Rock Creek renovation, which the NLT planned, permitted and broke ground on before the termination letter halted construction," wrote Morrison. "But it’s true that the projects at all three courses have taken longer than Exhibit D suggested they might."
The problem, however, Morrison continued, is that the Interior is leaving out that the contract says, “[T]imeframes are general and subject to change due to compliance timeframes or other circumstances.”
The U.S. found that acceptable enough to sign off on the lease under those circumstances.
While Morrison agrees the schedule "was overly ambitious," he wondered if the NLT thought the close relationship with the Park Service would help the permitting and compliance process. It hasn't. It still takes considerable time to have any change by the NLT be approved by the National Park Service.
"At Rock Creek, for instance, the NLT had to justify its tree-removal program literally one tree at a time," Morrison revealed, citing a recent post by the NLT with examples.
That said, so far $8.5 million of upgrades have been done with a little less than half going to Rock Creek's navigating the "permitting quagmire." There have been smaller projects at the other courses.
"Doing as much as the NLT has done in the past five years is highly unusual in big-city American municipal golf," Morrison believed.
The second accusation said that the NLT didn't respond to the "default" notice with a “reasonable and credible cure proposal.” However, Morrison explained, that the default notice didn't give any information on what needed to be cured.
The Interior Department admits the NLT participated in “multiple in-person meetings, teleconferences, and written submissions during the [45-day] cure period.” It also cited $1 million to mobilize construction at Rock Creek after the notice.
Finally, the government claims the NLT owes them $8.8 million. The Washington Post reported last month that the NLT’s agreement with the NPS let's their rent to be offset by the renovations being performed.
"The numbers roughly line up: the DOI is pointing to an $8.8-million discrepancy, and the NLT has spent about $8.5 million on capital-improvement projects," wrote Morrison. "To me, the claim that the NLT is millions of dollars behind on rent doesn’t appear to hold any water."
Morrison closed by saying he expects these issues will make their way to the legal debate that is likely to unfold in the coming months.