East Potomac Golf Links occupies Hains Point, a narrow peninsula in East Potomac Park between the Potomac River and the Washington Channel. Its fairways sit unusually close to the monumental core of Washington: views of the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the river and, across the water, Northern Virginia are part of an ordinary round rather than a special overlook. The address is 972 Ohio Drive SW, Washington, DC 20024. The National Park Service (NPS) identifies the facility as a public golf course within National Mall and Memorial Parks; the course is operated through playDCgolf. It is recreation on federal parkland, not a private country club.
The course opened in 1920, during a period when American cities were building public golf facilities as part of a wider movement to make recreation available to urban residents. Golf architect and champion Walter J. Travis shaped the original East Potomac design in the early 1920s. Its flat, open setting lent itself to a links-inspired layout, with the landscape and long sightlines doing much of the visual work. The original 18-hole design could be played in reverse; today that course is known as the Blue Course and is played in one direction. A further nine holes followed soon after, and by 1931 the complex included the Red nine, putting facilities and miniature golf. The NPS’s historical account describes the course as a designed cultural landscape, not just a collection of greens and tees. Read the National Park Service history.
