Edifice Complex
Should Trump be allowed to rebuild a D.C. municipal golf course the way Obama wanted to do in Chicago?
One of the more reasonable outlets for President Trump’s Edifice Complex is his interest in Washington D.C.’s three municipal golf courses. Trump appears to want to bring in a big name, such as Tiger Woods, to revamp the East Potomac Park public golf course just south of the Jefferson Memorial into a high end showcase befitting its location in the shadow of the Washington Monument.
Almost nobody is mentioning that Barack Obama wanted to do the exact same thing with the two municipal golf courses wrapping around his library, the Barack Obama Presidential Center. Obama wanted to have Tiger’s golf course design firm turn the short 18 hole Jackson Park course and the short 9 hole South Shore course into a single upscale 18. Here’s Tiger Woods’ plan for Obama’s super course next to the Obama Center:
I like Tiger’s idea of four holes bordering Lake Michigan. The Greater Chicagoland area is drastically lacking golf courses bordering Lake Michigan.
But eventually black golfers on the South Side made enough of a stink that they preferred to have 27 short, easy, and cheap holes of golf to 18 holes of spectacular but expensive golf.
From Block Club Chicago:
Obama Foundation Backs Away From Tiger Woods Golf Course In Jackson Park
Former President Barack Obama asked the golf legend to take on the course overhaul near the Obama Presidential Center. Now, foundation officials say they’re not involved in the project and are “singularly focused” on opening the center.
by Maxwell Evans
September 8, 2023
WOODLAWN — Former President Barack Obama’s foundation distanced itself this week from plans to combine two South Side golf courses into a professional-level course near his eponymous center.
Legendary golfer Tiger Woods’ design firm, TGR Design, signed on in 2016 to combine the 18-hole Jackson Park and nine-hole South Shore golf courses into a single, PGA Tour-caliber course. Obama called Woods to take up the project, the Tribune reported in 2018.
From the Washington Post news section:
Paywall here.
