President Donald Trump is planning a big overhaul of the Courses at Andrews, a army golf course he has by no means performed, regardless of spending a lot of his latest two-week Florida trip on the greens. Upon his return to the White House, the undertaking is about to turn into a spotlight.
Known because the “president’s golf course”, the location throughout the safe confines of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, simply 15 miles from the White House, has lengthy served as a favoured retreat for leaders looking for respite. Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden have all frolicked there, with Barack Obama taking part in it extra steadily than some other president, roughly 110 occasions throughout his eight years in workplace.
This transfer marks a departure for Mr Trump, who has sometimes favoured his household’s personal golf programs, reportedly spending one in each 4 days of his second time period at one among them. He has now enlisted golf champion Jack Nicklaus to guide the architectural redesign of the historic greens.
“It’s amazing that an individual has time to take a couple hours away from the world crises. And they’re people like everybody else,” mentioned Michael Thomas, the previous basic supervisor of the course, who has golfed with lots of the presidents visiting Andrews through the years.
Andrews, higher referred to as the house of Air Force One, has two 18-hole programs and a 9-hole one. Its amenities have undergone renovations previously, together with in 2018, when Congress accepted funding to interchange growing old presidential plane and to construct a brand new hanger and help amenities. That undertaking was shut sufficient to the programs that they needed to be altered then, too.
Trump toured the bottom by helicopter earlier than Thanksgiving with Nicklaus, who has designed prime programs the world over. The president known as Andrews “a great place, that’s been destroyed over the years, through lack of maintenance.”
Other golfers, although, describe Andrews’ grounds as in good condition, regardless of some dry patches. Online evaluations reward the course’s mature timber, difficult roughs, and ponds and streams that function water hazards. The programs are largely flat, however afford views of the encompassing base.
The first president to golf at Andrews was Ford in 1974. Thomas started working there a pair years later, and was basic supervisor from 1981 till he retired in 2019.
He mentioned the Secret Service through the years used as many as 28 golf carts — in addition to the president’s regular 30-car motorcade — to maintain the perimeter safe.
“It’s a Cecil B. DeMille production every time,” mentioned Thomas, who had the chance to play rounds with 4 totally different presidents, and with Biden when he was vice chairman.
He mentioned the commanders in chief typically loved their day trip on the course in their very own distinctive methods, however “they all like to drive the cart because they never get an opportunity to drive.”
“It’s like getting your driver’s license all over again,” Thomas laughed.
Trump golfs most weekends, and as of Jan. 1, has spent an estimated 92 days of his second term doing so, according to an Associated Press analysis of his schedules.
That tally includes days when Trump was playing courses his family owns in Virginia, around 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the White House, and near his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, where he’s spending the winter holidays. It also includes 10 days Trump spent staying at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where his schedule allowed time for rounds of golf.
Trump has visited Andrews in the past, but the White House and base have no record of him playing the courses.
Andrews’ military history dates to the Civil War, when Union troops used a church near Camp Springs, Maryland, as sleeping quarters. Its golf course opened in 1960.
The White House said the renovation will be the most significant in the history of Andrews. The courses and clubhouse need improvements due to age and wear, it said, and there are discussions about including a multifunctional event center as part of the project.
“President Trump is a champion-level golfer with an extraordinary eye for detail and design,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “His vision to renovate and beautify Joint Base Andrews’ golf courses will bring much-needed improvements that servicemembers and their families will be able to enjoy for generations to come.”
Plans are within the very early phases, and the price of — and funding for — the undertaking have not been decided, the White House mentioned. Trump has mentioned solely that it’s going to require “very little money.”
The Andrews improvements join a bevy of Trump construction projects, including demolishing the White House’s East Wing for a sprawling ballroom now expected to cost $400 million, redoing the bathroom attached to the Lincoln bedroom and replacing the Rose Garden’s lawn with a Mar-a-Lago-like patio area.
Outside the White House, Trump has led building projects at the Kennedy Center and wants to erect a Paris-style arch near the Lincoln Memorial, and has said he wants to rebuild Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, the Trump administration ended a lease agreement with a non-profit for three public golf courses in Washington — which could allow the president to further shape golfing in the nation’s capital. The White House, however, said that move isn’t related to the plans for Andrews.
When the president is golfing, Andrews officials block off nine holes at a time so no one plays in front of him, allowing for extra security while also ensuring consistent speed-of-play, Thomas said.
That’s relatively easily done given that the courses aren’t open to the public. They’re usually reserved for active or retired members of the military and their families, as well as some Defense Department-linked federal employees.
Thomas remembers playing a round with the older President Bush, a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee known for fast play, while first lady Barbara Bush walked with Millie, the first couple’s English Springer Spaniel. George W. Bush also played fast, Thomas said, and got additional exercise by frequently riding his mountain bike before golfing.
When he wasn’t golfing at Andrews, Obama tried to recreate at least part of the experience back home. He had a White House golf simulator installed after then-first lady Michelle Obama asked Thomas how they might acquire a model that the president had seen advertised on the Golf Channel. Thomas gave her a contact at the network.
Obama famously cut short a round at Andrews after nine holes in 2011 to hustle back to the White House for what turned out to be a top-secret review of final preparations for a Navy Seal raid on the compound of Osama Bin Laden.
But, while Thomas was golfing with presidents, he said he never witnessed play interrupted by an important call or any major emergency that forced them off the course mid-hole. There also were never any rain-outs.
“If there was rain coming, they’d get the weather forecast before we would,” Thomas mentioned. “They would cancel quick on that.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/president-trump-andrews-golf-course-b2893930.html