President Donald Trump plans to renovate the Courses at Andrews, the military golf courses inside Joint Base Andrews near Washington, with golf course designer Jack Nicklaus, the White House said, according to an Associated Press report.
The Courses at Andrews are about 15 miles from the White House and are widely known as the “president’s golf course.” AP reported that Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Joe Biden and Barack Obama have spent time there, with Obama playing the course roughly 110 times in eight years.
AP said Trump has spent much of a two-week vacation in Florida golfing, but that when he returns to the White House, his attention has turned to Andrews’ courses for a major construction project. The White House and the base said they have no record of Trump playing the Courses at Andrews, despite past visits.
Michael Thomas, the former general manager of the course who has golfed with presidents visiting Andrews over the years, described the way presidential downtime fits into a schedule dominated by major decisions. Thomas said: “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,” in comments AP included in its report.
Thomas said Andrews has two 18-hole courses and a 9-hole course. He said renovations have been made before, including in 2018 after Congress approved funding to replace aging presidential aircraft and build a new hangar and support facilities—work that affected the courses and required them to be altered then as well.
AP reported that Trump toured Joint Base Andrews by helicopter before Thanksgiving with Nicklaus. The AP report said Trump described Andrews as “a great place, that’s been destroyed over the years, through lack of maintenance.”
The White House said the renovation will be the most significant in the history of Andrews, with improvements needed because of the age and wear of the courses and clubhouse. White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement that Trump “is a champion-level golfer with an extraordinary eye for detail and design,” and said the plan to renovate and beautify the courses will bring “much-needed improvements that service members and their families will be able to enjoy for generations to come.”
Plans are still in an early stage, the White House said, and the cost and funding have not been determined. AP reported that Trump has said the project would require “very little money,” and that there are discussions about adding a multifunctional event center as part of the renovation.
Security and logistics have long shaped how presidents use the Andrews courses, Thomas said. He said the Secret Service over the years used as many as 28 golf carts, in addition to the president’s usual 30-car motorcade, and described the overall scene as “a Cecil B. DeMille production every time.”
Thomas said presidents generally enjoyed time on the course, adding that “they all like to drive the cart because they never get an opportunity to drive.” He said he told AP it was “like getting your driver’s license all over again.”
AP said that, as of Friday, Trump had spent an estimated 93 days of his second term golfing, based on an AP analysis of his schedules. That estimate included days at family-owned courses in Virginia, around Mar-a-Lago in Florida, and 10 days at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where his schedule allowed time for rounds.
In describing how play is managed during presidential golfing, Thomas said Andrews officials block off nine holes at a time so no one plays in front of the president, a practice tied to extra security and consistent speed of play. He said the courses are usually reserved for active or retired members of the military and their families, along with some Defense Department-linked federal employees.
Thomas also described how the courses handle weather during visits, saying: “If there was rain coming, they’d get the weather forecast before we would.” He said: “They would cancel quick on that.”
The Andrews golf course opened in 1960, according to the AP report, which traced the base’s military history to the Civil War era. The White House said the latest proposal is part of a broader set of construction projects underway or proposed by the administration.