Paul Killebrew received an interesting call from Langston Golf Course a few years back.
“The mower’s down,” a Langston worker told Killebrew, managing partner of Golf Course Specialists Inc., which runs the District of Columbia’s three public golf courses. “We hit a washing machine in the fairway.”
It wasn’t entirely a surprise. The back nine at Langston was, after all, built on a landfill.
The District’s other two public courses house plenty of wildlife, with deer running all over Rock Creek, and foxes, raccoons and, fittingly, two bald eagles holding court at East Potomac Park on Hains Point.
Hilton Foster, a marshal at Hains Point, remembered hitting a drive down the middle of the fairway one of the first times he played the course.
“Then, a fox stopped, looked at me, took my ball and ran away with it,” he recalled. “I still don’t know what the local rules are for a fox taking your ball.”
Langston Golf Course» Address: 2600 Benning Road NE» Phone: 202-397-8638» Greens fees (Friday to Sunday/
holidays)
» 9 holes: $20
» 18 holes: $30» Course’s first nine holes were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.» The course is named for John Mercer Langston, the first African-American popularly elected to office (1855), founder and first dean of Howard University’s Law Department (now Howard University Law School), first president of Virginia State University and the first black congressman elected from Virginia (1888).» Langston is also home to the international Pro-Am Tournament, the Capital City Open, a renowned event that has attracted participation by such celebrities as Bob Hope, former President Gerald R. Ford and Joe Louis, as well as prominent players, including Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder, Jim Thorpe and many other black professional golfers. » For a time during the 1970s, Elder and his wife, Rose, managed the course.Rock Creek Golf Course» Address: 6100 16th St. NW» Phone: 202-882-7332» Greens fees (Friday to Sunday/holidays)
» 9 holes: $20
» 18 holes: $25» Has been recognized by Audubon International for its environmentally friendly maintenance practices.» Named one of Golf Digest’s Best Places to Play in 2008.East Potomac Park Golf Course» Address: 972 Ohio Drive SW» Phone: 202-554-7660» Greens fees (Friday to Sunday/
holidays)
» 9 holes Red Course: $12
» 9 holes White Course: $15
» 9 holes Blue Course: $20
» 18 holes Blue Course: $30» Named one of Golf Digest’s Best Places to Play in 2008. » Contains more than 100 flowering Japanese cherry trees.» Hosts more than 90,000 rounds a year.All three courses» Gas carts
» 9 holes, per rider fee: $9
» 18 holes, per rider fee: $13» Pull carts
» 9 holes: $3.50
» 18 holes: $4.50» Rental clubs
» 9 holes: $9
» 18 holes: $12
Local golfers also have to deal with the sporadic roar of fighter jets or Marine One or planes flying in and out of Ronald Reagan
Washington National Airport across the Potomac River.
But despite those shortcomings, Hains Point, Langston and Rock Creek are home for many local duffers.
“When the economy went south, a lot of people found it advantageous to drop those [country club] expenses” and play at public courses instead, said Ernie Andrews, who has worked at Langston for more than 25 years.
The Washington Monument serves as a prominent target on the 16th tee at Hains Point and, if you play a slight draw, RFK Stadium does the same for the 16th at Langston.
On the other side of town, Rock Creek mistakenly (and infamously) put herbicide on its greens in 2007 instead of fertilizer, completely scorching them.
“Rock Creek Park’s got too many par 3’s,” said Norm Carr, 73, a retired trial lawyer who said he hasn’t played it in a while. “It’s a pretty location, but it isn’t really a golf course.”
Still, it attracts a loyal fan base.
“They have a set clientele,” said Bill Budke, the tennis director at Sidwell Friends School, who is running a golf-tennis camp for youths at Hains Point.
Rock Creek is also much tighter than Langston, agreed Chuck Hinton, a former Washington Senators baseball player and Langston regular.
“You got to be able to play — simple as that,” he said.
Hinton’s right. Much of the front nine at Rock Creek is closed off from surrounding Northwest by trees. A light breeze in your face on the third tee, for example, can easily beat your ball down 20 yards short of the par 3 if you don’t account for the air currents above the treetops.
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is trying to get a major revamping for the three courses, which are maintained by the National Park Service. She has introduced a bill that would open them up to investment from private contractors, who could give the aging facilities a much-needed face-lift.
But for now, golfers are content to bang balls around the three courses.
Foster, who retired three years ago as a government lawyer, became obsessed with the game following his retirement, and said he expects to break 80 by the end of the summer.
“I became addicted to golf — if possible, I’ll play two rounds a day,” he said. “People kept telling me I could play here and save money [if I worked here], so that’s exactly what I did.
“It’s very nice to have three public golf courses in the District,” he said. “It’s not Pebble Beach, but it’s a great course to learn on.”
