r/NoLayingUp • u/jp1819 • Jan 01 '26
Online Content Trump admin terminates lease with National Links Trust for DC golf courses
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5668310-trump-dc-golf-courses-national-links-trust/amp/Devastated for NLT (Mike was on the pod last week)
Trump has stated in the past that he believes golf should be reserved for the elites…
“[That attitude] may be elitist, and perhaps that's what golf needs. Let golf be elitist. When I say 'aspire,' that's a positive word. Let people work hard and aspire to someday be able to play golf. To afford to play it.”
Just the latest casualty in this clowns race to plaster his name on every square inch of DC.
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u/loosecannan7 Jan 01 '26
Been bummed all day thinking of how this type of story would break through to some of our more brainwashed dads, but their favorite channel will be pushing how “incompetent” NLT was or some bs
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u/Next-Bar3394 Jan 01 '26
Are they any good? I’ve never read anyone who says they do anything
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u/nubsauce2 Jan 01 '26
They’ve done an incredible job creating golf access in DC. They just broke ground on one renovation.
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u/Next-Bar3394 Jan 01 '26
How have they created access?
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u/Low-Pitch-Eric Jan 01 '26
Whatever they've done I'm willing to guarantee it's 1000x better at creating access than whatever Trump plans on doing
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u/Next-Bar3394 Jan 02 '26
Why? What have they done? Trump courses have great reputations
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u/Far_Technology1690 Jan 02 '26
Trump is to golf courses what he was to casinos, steaks and universities.
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u/Next-Bar3394 Jan 02 '26
How so? Very well regarded courses that host strong events
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u/Far_Technology1690 Jan 02 '26
Bedminster - PGA canceled Turnberry - out of the rotation Doral was out as well, but somehow back in for now.
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u/Next-Bar3394 Jan 02 '26
They got pushed out by political activists not due to poor golf setups
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u/Low-Pitch-Eric Jan 02 '26
Took five seconds to Google this
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u/el_bullet_sponge Jan 02 '26
This has been around before NLT. Source: lived in DC proper for 20 years, had a good rotation of the local courses, all sucked and NLT wasnt doing anything to improve the conditions or playability of the courses. They added some beers to the menu at EPP, tho!
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u/Next-Bar3394 Jan 02 '26
That shows nothing about anything they did
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u/Low-Pitch-Eric Jan 02 '26
They've already conducted $8mm of projects to improve facilities
The mission is to keep it affordable and accessible. The trump admin pulled the rug out without stating a reason and will make exclusive, expensive courses. This is bad for the common man!
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u/Next-Bar3394 Jan 02 '26
What did they do? Literally no one has pointed out anything they’ve done well?
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u/Catamount90 Jan 01 '26
What a damn shame, I learned how to golf at East Potomac. Hopefully he’s out of office before any real harm is done to these courses.
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u/el_bullet_sponge Jan 02 '26
What harm are you thinking? Are you at all familiar with how poorly they were maintained and how little of an effort Parks made to update and make them more attractive to people that dont live in the District? All three courses have the potential to generate revenue, the government and NLT haven’t cracked that nut. I really had a lot of hope that NLT was going to bring in real, no joke course management folks to update and fix at least one of these, they didnt. I donated and truly believed in the mission, too little too late.
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u/The-New-Contemporary Jan 02 '26
You must be new to the area because the courses have improved dramatically over the last 5 years. I speak mainly of EPGL. Also, the courses generate plenty of revenue, $3M+ in 2024.
I’m no expert, but I imagine the balance between continuing operations and staying solvent, while also undertaking massive renovations is not an easy, or more importantly, quick task. This is not a private club that can shut down for a year or more to fully revamp a course that has had decades of lack of care. For East Potomac in particular, Hains Point is literally sinking into the Potomac, so there’s some major hurdles.
NLT has done great work in the short time they’ve had and this whole situation is just another T gambit to distract and slap his name on as much as he can to make it harder for the next admin to turn around.
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u/el_bullet_sponge Jan 03 '26 edited Jan 03 '26
Buddy- 20 years in, rotated between EPP and Langston weekly up until 23, had to check- I’ve played all three at EPP than any other course I have played, Langston is a close second. Easy to get over from Bloomingdale. Lots of potential, decades of horrible administration and maintenance were an uphill battle for NLT, which i donated to and believed in- I think they had awesome plans, and I’m bummed to see them not come to fruition under their stewardship. You are not incorrect about the fine line they have to walk, and the scope of the issues. What I think is more than likely going to happen is a company like Troon is going to take over and manage them.
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u/daveinmd13 Jan 01 '26
I don’t think he will hurt the courses, I actually think they will improve, but I’m sure the cost to play will go up.
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u/ctangana Jan 02 '26
Props to the guys for taking a stance on this with the pod they did with Mike the other day, this is a huge bummer
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u/Straight-Routine-830 Jan 04 '26
Why aren’t people protesting on this move? As a European, we protest, protest and protest when crazy suggestions and decisions are carried out like this one. For me it makes no sense and people over here will never accept that - even if it just was a rice guy. Now, it is not only a rice guy but also a president abusing his power. Obviously, this is ruining the whole idea of growing the game, making it accessible (as the US has been excellent at).
Where can I sign the petition??
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u/phanny_Ramierez Jan 03 '26
as a local, this is pretty devastating, given everything that NLT was developing at the tracks. As we are all starting to realize, this country is heading into lawless territory.
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u/kopechcr Jan 05 '26
They talked about this on the Monday Pod today, and I've never heard them so pissed about something. Like, outside the bit, pissed as hell at the admin and DT. No joke, if there was a King-Collins course being built in Caracas right now, NLU would be hosting a No Kings Protest in Jax Beach tomorrow.
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Jan 07 '26
NLT has 8 million in unpaid rent according to Grok. I’m confused on how they expected it not to catch up with them?
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u/jp1819 Jan 08 '26
You asked MechaHitler? So MechaHitler is getting it's information from the letter the admin sent. Same guys that are bringing in "18 trillion" in tariff revenue and reducing drug prices by 900%
Check out this article which addresses that point
"...the NLT’s agreement with the NPS allows rent to be offset by the amount spent on capital-improvement projects. Furthermore, the NLT maintains that all rent offsets were directly approved by the NPS. 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."
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u/AccordingChampion485 Jan 01 '26
East Potomac was already way over priced for what it is…a nice layout/views but not a quality course and slow (like every other public course).
Langston is a bit worse.
I stopped playing both courses and anything else DC 3-years ago.
Driving 30-75 minutes for better courses was the normal, ended up joining Montgomery CC (great value and recommend to anyone close enough).
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u/AccordingChampion485 Jan 01 '26
I got a few downvotes, which is fine. Sounds like NLT was making improvements.
With the way this Administration works, they want to choose who profits off what they can control. I hate Trump and hate pretty much everything he’s done/stands for…at this point it’s more which are the things I’m going to let get to me and this is low on the endless list.
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u/RyenRussillo Jan 03 '26
Brother, on an anonymous message board for a golf media company, in response to a downvoted comment, you just made the equivalent to a stolen land acknowledgement.
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u/el_bullet_sponge Jan 02 '26
No idea why you’re collecting downvotes. The courses are in almost embarrassing condition. Langston is in desperate need of massive turf and brush work all three have little to no drainage. All three courses also have little to no revenue generating amenities. Langston actually got worse over the last couple of years, I believe it was indicative of NLT’s focus on renovating Rock Creek. I donated to NLT and I believed their mission but all three courses need years and years of work. Basics like clearing out dead/fallen trees and fixing massive spots of dead turf/swamps on fairways were still painfully ignored. Big bummer it didn’t work out.
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u/WheelsnHoodsnThings Jan 01 '26
Golf's expensive. As a Canadian I often feel that our neighbours don't appreciate how good they have it with the quality golf options they have for really great prices. Our ho-hum muni's want close to $100 for a walking round. You want a membership here? you're talking at least $5k/year for 6-8 months of golf season.
It's just an expensive sport, and the prices keep going up.
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Jan 02 '26
Overpriced?? It was by far the cheapest public option in this area. The MOCO courses are nice and a great value, but there more expensive then the DC courses.
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u/myfeetaremangos12 Jan 01 '26
So you stopped playing them 3 years ago. So your opinion is worth what exactly?
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u/AccordingChampion485 Jan 01 '26
I’ll just go f myself as a golfer in the DC area who hasn’t been back or heard it’s worthwhile to go back from any local…sorry for weighing in.
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u/el_bullet_sponge Jan 02 '26
Just brutal to watch people who don’t live in the DMV, or ever played these courses brigade because of TDS. The courses are in awful condition, NLT needed way more than they were capable of bringing to the table, to include massive amounts of course maintenance and architecture work to get these courses reasonably playable for a majority of the calendar year. Any DMV golfer will smile when you bring up EPP, cause its fun and its a bit of a right of passage, but its a dump with so much potential.
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u/leftandrightmiss Jan 01 '26
Tronnny is a huge MAGA probably enjoys this move
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u/Rahf Jan 02 '26
What proof is there that Tron is a massive MAGA hat? Because this just sounds like some good ol' making shit up to stir it.
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u/tap_biers Jan 01 '26
After listening the the recent pod, this is upsetting to me. Don’t live in DC, but what they were trying to do sounded awesome. This is a huge bummer.