What's happening at East Po right now.

East Potomac Park belongs to everyone in the DMV, and the muni course belongs to the regulars who've played it for decades. The perimeter loop, the waterfront, the picnic areas, the cherry trees, the mini-golf, and an affordable public course are what make this peninsula one of the most-loved public spaces in the city.

We're not anti-golf. We're against turning a beloved muni into a championship venue, and against turning the rest of the peninsula into a single-use, golf-only destination. Our priorities:

• The historic muni course stays a muni, public, affordable, and built for everyday DC golfers, not tournaments.
• Common-sense improvements to the course are welcome; a wholesale teardown and championship redesign is not.
• The perimeter loop road and waterfront stay open to walkers, runners, and cyclists.
• Picnic areas, open lawns, and the rest of the park remain free and welcoming to the general public.
• Any changes are modest and don't expand the golf footprint into the rest of the peninsula.

For several years, the National Links Trust, a nonprofit, operated DC's three public courses with a mission of keeping the game accessible and affordable. In late 2025, the Department of the Interior ended that lease and announced plans to bring East Potomac in-house.

Final plans haven't been made public. What we do know: President Trump has said he hopes to host a major championship at East Potomac, early renderings tied to architect Tom Fazio show a dramatically expanded course footprint, and the direction is clearly toward tournament-grade play rather than an affordable neighborhood muni. For the regulars who've played this course for years, and for everyone else who uses the peninsula around it, that would be a significant change in what East Po is for and who it's for.

On February 13, 2026, the DC Preservation League and a group of local residents filed suit (DC Preservation League v. Department of the Interior), arguing the project moved forward without the environmental and historic review process that federal law requires for changes of this scale on federal parkland.

The complaint also alleges that roughly 30,000 cubic yards of construction debris, pipes, wires, brick, was deposited on the park during the demolition of parts of the White House East Wing earlier in the term, without testing for pollutants near the Potomac waterfront. Those claims are being litigated and have not been ruled on.

• The perimeter loop road around Hains Point is generally still open to walkers and cyclists.
• The golf course, driving range, and mini-golf are entering a period of restricted access starting May 4, 2026, meaning the muni as generations of DC golfers have known it is effectively closing.
• The administration has said it wants the area ready by the America 250 celebrations in July 2026, though pending legal challenges may affect the timeline.

Save East Po is a broad coalition, park users and golfers, neighbors and visitors from across the DMV, who don't usually organize together. On this, we do. We want the next chapter of East Potomac Park to keep what made it special: a public peninsula and a public muni, both built for every kind of DMV resident.

This decision is being made at the federal level, where local public-comment processes carry little weight. What does carry weight is grassroots support, visible, organized, and loud enough to show how much this park and this course mean to the people of DC.