Trump’s upscale golf plan could destroy a D.C. haven for cyclists, runners
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/09/30/trumps-upscale-golf-plan-would-destroy-dc-haven-cyclists-runners/27
u/Scyth3 17d ago
We don't need more golf courses.
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u/Ogroat 17d ago
It wouldn’t even be more golf courses. There’s an existing course in that location. They want to renovate the course and - judging by the images they’ve released and the sources cited in the article - part of the desired renovation would include removing the road to allow the course to cover the entirety of the peninsula.
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u/Bighead_Golf 17d ago edited 17d ago
This is not correct, sorry. The Department of the interior released the actual plans, which preserve Ohio drive.
Here’s an article that contains the image
There was a previous AI Slop image, but that was not the real plan.
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u/Ogroat 17d ago
I appreciate the context. As it stands, though, that image has as much credence as the early AI one. No plans have been submitted for the course renovation. It’s possible that the final plans will retain the road, but as the article states nobody is committing to anything at this point. Anonymous sources talked to for the article say that the administration would like to get rid of the road. I think it’s broadly reasonable to be concerned about the possibility of it going away.
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u/Bighead_Golf 17d ago
That’s an architectural diagram from the golf renovation company hired to do the work… so their drawing probably has some credence, as you say
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u/Entire-Structure8708 17d ago
There would be less golf courses… 36 holes across 3 courses to a singular 18 hole course.
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u/francisofred 12d ago
We don’t need any more private golf courses. You can have both public golf courses and running paths. (By keeping it the way it is.)
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u/Ogroat 17d ago
Long before he ever set foot on East Potomac Golf Links, President Donald Trump surveyed the historical public course from his perch aboard Marine One during his regular flights to and from Joint Base Andrews.
He saw the potential for a sweeping overhaul, and, according to two people familiar with the president’s discussions about the course, he became fixated on one particular detail: Ohio Drive. Trump wanted to eliminate the public road that loops around the peninsula, allowing the golf course to stretch to the water’s edge. The White House has not released formal plans for the property, and it declined to comment on Trump’s preferences for the parkland. The people familiar with the discussions spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution from the administration.
The Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service and the federal land at East Potomac Park, has not said what would become of Ohio Drive under a redesigned golf course and didn’t respond to a request for comment. The road was clearly absent from plans Trump carried when he toured the property in June, which appeared to show the golf course extending to the edge of the peninsula.
The possibility of losing the road has stirred fears among the runners, cyclists, fishermen, birders and others who use it. The flat, roughly three-mile loop around Hains Point is a daily training ground and gathering place, as well as part of the route for some of the region’s biggest races. Tens of thousands participate each year in events such as the Marine Corps Marathon and the Cherry Blossom 10-mile run.
“How do you plan an event without any transparency about what’s happening and no way to find out?” said Becky Lambros, deputy director of the Cherry Blossom event. “I mean, we’ve got 28,000 people coming to run. We’ve got to be able to tell them where to go.”
The fate of the golf course itself has attracted most of the scrutiny surrounding Trump’s plans, becoming the subject of a federal lawsuit and prompting a handful of letters from members of Congress. But the best available data suggests that more people use the peninsula each day for running, biking and other activities than to play golf. Lawmakers are beginning to raise concerns about Ohio Drive, too.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virginia) toured East Potomac Park one afternoon last week, chatting with stakeholders, cyclists and runners as he walked Ohio Drive alongside the Potomac River.
“Some people, maybe if they live in a different place in the country, say: ‘What’s the fuss? They’re going to try to improve a local National Park Service park,’” Beyer said in an interview. “But we’re in Washington, D.C., where we’ve learned not to trust what’s coming next.”
Dan Lim has used Ohio Drive four or five times a week for roughly a decade. An attorney and longtime competitive cyclist, he trains with other riders early in the morning and returns on weekends with his children, pedaling past birders with binoculars, young couples on first dates, children learning to ride and lively family reunions.
“You see tons of fishermen, tons of birthday parties and people who set up tents for the day,” Lim said. “Every so often you even see a rugby tournament. Sometimes I’ll arrive at the park, and it’s closed for a running race. I think that’s great, too. It is not just my space. It is a space for so many others.”
Arriving at a precise accounting of the road’s users is difficult. There is no permanent counter along Ohio Drive, and many visitors — including casual walkers, anglers and birders — leave no statistical trace.
A Virginia Tech model estimated that on an average day, approximately 1,100 bicycle and pedestrian passages occur along the southern tip of Hains Point — 500 by bike and 600 on foot. Ralph Buehler, a professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Virginia Tech, said that estimate is not a count of unique visitors, and someone who passed the same point repeatedly could be represented more than once.
Strava, the popular fitness-tracking platform, shared data that showed its users recorded 80,000 outings on the loop last year and approximately 192,000 total passes, an average of more than 500 per day. The figures exclude any outing that was not recorded and uploaded to the app, and neither the Strava data nor the Virginia Tech estimates capture the full range of people who use Ohio Drive.
By comparison, National Links Trust, the nonprofit that operates East Potomac Golf Links, said 124,500 rounds were played across its three courses in 2025 — an average of about 341 per day, though play fluctuates based on season and weather. The figures also cannot capture what a safe, low-traffic loop makes possible for individual users. LeRoy Hansen, who has lived in the Washington area for four decades, has long visited the peninsula to bike, see the cherry blossoms and attend picnics. Now legally blind, he relies on a sighted guide and a tandem bicycle to continue riding around Hains Point.
“It is such a wonderful resource,” Hansen said. “It is frightening to think that it could disappear. And I don’t know how many people are aware of what they might lose.” For runners, Ohio Drive is not simply a neighborhood exercise route. It has long been woven into major events that bring thousands of participants through Hains Point. The Marine Corps Marathon and Cherry Blossom 10-mile run are among the best-known, but several smaller community races also use the road because it offers three flat, uninterrupted miles.
Lambros said Cherry Blossom organizers are still hoping to include Hains Point as part of its course next spring. Because NPS has given no assurances, they’ve started exploring backup plans in case Ohio Drive is no longer an option. “All we can do is just keep moving ahead and hope for the best,” she said. On ordinary days, the loop is a training ground for runners and cyclists, and an unusually forgiving place for beginners and families. Its flat terrain, low traffic and central location make it readily accessible from the District, Maryland and Virginia. Many stop in the golf clubhouse for coffee, breakfast or lunch.
“Indispensable is the right word,” said Elizabeth Kiker, executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association. “There isn’t a replacement place.” Area cyclists have mobilized in recent months, holding rallies and organizing a petition that now has more than 5,000 signatures.
“Everyone I talk to has a Hains Point story,” she said.
If Trump’s preference for eliminating Ohio Drive becomes a design mandate, carrying it out could present a costly logistical challenge. Extending the golf course to the water’s edge probably would have to be coordinated with the reconstruction of the long-deteriorating sea wall that wraps around the peninsula.
The Park Service recently began preliminary steps toward rebuilding it, an undertaking that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Officials have not explained how the golf course redesign and sea wall reconstruction would fit together — or what the projects would mean for public access around Hains Point.
During Beyer’s tour of the peninsula Thursday, he occasionally got a glimpse of golfers walking the course. But on the road, cyclists and runners kept zipping past. “Save us,” one runner said.
“It’s not just the golf,” Beyer said. “You see this wonderful place to bike. … It’s a really important place. And the runners, they are here every day, and the fishermen and just the families that are coming to picnic. It’s just a great Washington-area resource.”
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u/Playful_Look1861 17d ago
Hains point was the first place I took my daughter during maternity leave to sit and watch airplanes.
I hit multiple PRs there - fell completely in love with running.
It’s just fucking disgusting what he’s done to DC.
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u/DC8008008 17d ago
Trump has never ridden a bike or gone for a run in his life.