US President Donald Trump spends much of his time in Florida on the golf course, but one iconic course, located just a few miles from the White House, has never hosted his swings. This is the course at Joint Base Andrews , a military base in Maryland best known as the home of Air Force One, and whose greens have been nicknamed "Presidents' Golf" for decades.
Since Gerald Ford, almost every American president has visited the golf course to enjoy a few hours of relaxation away from international crises. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush , Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Joe Biden all played there regularly. Barack Obama even holds an unofficial record, with approximately 110 rounds played during his eight years in office. Donald Trump, on the other hand, always favored courses belonging to his family group, spending nearly a quarter of his second term on his own courses in Florida, Virginia, and New Jersey.
However, the president decided to launch a major renovation project at Andrews Field, entrusting the design to golf legend Jack Nicklaus . Before Thanksgiving, Trump and Nicklaus flew over the base by helicopter. Following this visit, the president stated that the site was "a great place, but deteriorated over the years through lack of maintenance." This assessment is not shared by all golfers, many of whom consider the courses to be in good condition, despite some drier areas.
The base has two 18-hole courses and one 9-hole course, reserved primarily for active and retired military personnel, their families, and certain Department of Defense employees . Opened in 1960, they have already undergone several modifications, notably during major infrastructure projects undertaken on the base in recent years. The current project, according to the White House, would be the largest ever undertaken on the site and could include, in addition to modernizing the courses and clubhouse, a multi-purpose event space.
Michael Thomas , the course's former managing director for nearly forty years, recalls rounds played with several presidents. He describes an impressive security operation, sometimes involving up to 28 golf carts deployed by the Secret Service, in addition to the presidential motorcade. "Each time, it was a veritable Hollywood production," he says, noting that the presidents particularly appreciated a rare privilege: driving the golf cart themselves, something impossible in their daily lives.
The cost of the project has not yet been finalized, nor has its financing been determined. Donald Trump simply stated that the renovation would require "very little money." It is nevertheless part of a series of ambitious projects initiated by the president, ranging from major transformations to the White House to architectural projects in the capital and its surrounding areas.
Paradoxically, despite this marked interest in the "presidents' golf course," neither the White House nor Andrews Air Force Base has any record of Donald Trump playing a round on these greens. A course steeped in presidential history could therefore soon be profoundly transformed by a head of state who, until now, has never played it.
