Rock Creek Park Gets a Plan

Yesterday, the National Links Trust, a nonprofit that operates three municipal golf courses in Washington, D.C., announced a plan for renovating Rock Creek Park Golf Course. It’s an ambitious proposal, calling for not only an overhaul of the William Flynn-designed course by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner but also a new clubhouse (housing a regional First Tee headquarters), pavilion, maintenance facility, driving range, short-game practice area, “Himalayas-style” putting course, and system of ecological trails. The NLT estimates that the work will cost $22.7 million and hopes to start work on the buildings this fall.

Hanse’s proposed renovation involves converting what used to be an 18-hole layout into a nine-hole regulation course and a nine-hole short course. The par-35, 3,285-yard regulation design uses corridors from both the relatively open front nine that Flynn built in 1923 and the tree-line back nine that he added in 1927. The short course occupies the wooded southwestern corner of the property and consists of par 3s ranging from 100 to 180 yards. (This approach is similar to the one taken recently by Belmont Golf Course, where Davis Love III’s firm freshened up 12 A.W. Tillinghast holes while creating a First Tee facility with a six-hole short course.)

Rock Creek Park has struggled to stay alive over the past few decades, even resorting to closing down four holes because of overgrowth and maintenance problems. The NLT’s plan offers a reason to be optimistic about the course’s future.

The full proposal makes for fun reading. Check it out here.

What do you make of the proposed Rock Creek renovation? Do you like the idea of turning old municipal golf courses into multi-use facilities, or would you prefer to see Golden Age 18-hole designs preserved in their entirety? I’ll put my cards on the table: I love what Belmont did, and I’m glad Rock Creek plans to follow suit.