Has a municipal golf course ever garnered more headlines than East Potomac Golf Links?
President Trump has made it so, with his wishes to turn the beloved park into D.C.’s answer to Bethpage Black. We can’t blame a New York native for wanting to create something as great as Long Island’s public-golf showpiece — the rare community gem capable of hosting major championships and a Ryder Cup. But the hemming and hawing over the property has reached untenable levels, inside and outside federal courtrooms.
Rather than pile on to that ongoing (and nowhere near settled) debate, I’d like to file another piece of evidence for those following these headlines. Consider it an amicus brief — the story of a muni to which the administration could and should pay close attention: Jackson Park.
JP, as it’s known here in Chicago, is a lot like East Po. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been a crucial asset for accessibility since its 1899 founding, when patrons could play it … for free. On Tuesday afternoon — a blissful 70-degree November day — when voting lines snaked down sidewalks and around corners, you could rip around JP for just $25.
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Jackson Park also once harbored dreams like Trump’s, by which a grand renovation would attract and challenge elite players and, by extension, the eyes of the world. Remember 2016? When Tiger Woods signed on to lead a makeover of the property, connecting Jackson Park to a nearby par-3 course?
That plan, like the Interior Department’s recently submitted East Po proposal, eliminated holes rather than adding them, with the goal of creating an 18-hole championship course that would stretch over 7,000 yards and court the discerning eye of the PGA Tour events team.
The Obama Foundation was tied to the project; the former president himself recruited Woods and his design team. As exciting as the concept was, though, it was, like East Po, met with fierce local opposition. Environmentalists railed against what the construction would do to local wetlands, and community golfers questioned if the course could maintain affordability if it was trying to also attract, say, the BMW Championship.
Before long, the Obama Foundation distanced itself from the course and instead focused its efforts on finishing the nearby presidential library. Woods’s design team never broke ground at Jackson Park and, in the years since, Troon stepped in to manage the property.
Instead of receiving a full-on facelift, Jackson Park had only a minor nip and tuck that cost just $2.8 million. The city added a state-of-the-art short-game area near the clubhouse. Teeing grounds were reshaped and — smartly — combined and lengthened to provide a trickier test. The course’s array of bunkers were resized and repositioned to challenge modern players, while at least 10 bunkers were removed and grassed over, making life easier on weekend hackers who like their golf in the $30 range. In all, workers removed more than 50% of the sand on the course, but what’s left is good sand, the kind that drains better when it rains.
Jackson Park serves as a reminder that not all good things in golf have to be grand. Munis often work better in moderation.
3 things I’m thinking:
1. Old (schedule) habits die hard: I spent some time with Sam Burns recently, and was so curious how he’d plan his offseason playing schedule. Burns told me the new Tour schedule, which really doesn’t kick off until late January, makes staying sharp in November, December and early January tricky. Three weeks ago, he didn’t think Tiger Woods’s event in the Bahamas made much sense for him. It felt like a one-off between holidays. But then I saw his name (and many other top names) on the field list and I knew why: These guys don’t want to be away from competition so long.
2. A new no. 1? We’ve been conditioned to see two names atop the world rankings: Scheffler and Korda. But that’s why everyone should be paying attention to DataGolf, the industry-leading analytics platform. Because while Scheffler remains the clear top dog in the men’s game, a new player took over that spot for the women: Miyu Yamashita. Across three different tours, the Japanese star won five of her last 12 tournaments. I’d like to think it will inspire some fire in the Korda camp as we move toward 2027.
3. The next great golf content? If you’re anything like me, the mega-popular Internet Invitational is all my golf buddies want to talk about. One problem: The reality-TV-ification of golf is not quite my kind of content. Luckily, my kinda content just announced its next release: On Nov. 24, at 9 p.m., the official film of the 2026 Masters will debut on Golf Channel. The world’s most famous golf tournament has gotten so serious about its premier content that it decided to give it a premiere date, too. No red carpet, unfortunately, but a red circle on the calendar for me.
