Garrett Morrison

Just published a project we've been working on for a while: deep dives on all 18 holes at Augusta National. Dig in. thefriedegg.com/articles/maste…

@Andy_Dyer_NOVA I mean, okay! Perhaps you should work tournament logistics for the USGA or PGA.

@garrett_TFE They host the Open at St Andrews in a town without an airport or train station. Carnoustie shouldn’t work either. Merion has held the US Open 5 times on a site smaller than 125 acres. 1,000,000 people watch fireworks within walking distance of East Potomac every July 4th.

From talking to 1) people deeply familiar with East Potomac's capacity as a property and 2) people responsible for staging majors, I have gotten the impression that the notion of bringing a U.S. Open or Ryder Cup to the facility is either a fevered delusion or pure grift.

@AndyGlobokar I don't know about Portmarnock, but every informed person I've spoken to about East Potomac's prospects as a major venue has told me that the combination of limited ingress/egress and insufficient space on the property makes it pretty much a non-starter.

@garrett_TFE I did some rough google earth measuring and EPGC sits on about 250 acres of narrow land - same as Portmarnock. I’ve never been to an Open but from TV it seems like the infrastructure build out is a lot less. If EPGC can’t host a big event, can Portmarnock?

And it's absolute horseshit to say I've relied on NLT PowerPoint slides. I have reported this story deeply, through conversations with sources at all levels of the situation. I have reviewed loads of internal documents to confirm my information. I have been reporting on NLT and D.C. municipal golf since 2019. I have been to the courses. It's hard to describe how much more I know about this story than you do.

@ChetrosBakke @BobHarig @peachgobbler I have been to all three properties. Vertical construction at Rock Creek was underway late last year. The project was funded and it was happening. You may live there, but you clearly don't have any idea what was happening within NLT, NPS, and DOI. I do.

Shout-out to William Doffermyre, Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, who is the person primarily responsible for pushing the National Links Trust out of its management of East Potomac Golf Course, and for scuttling a planned Tom Doak restoration in favor of an absolutely ridiculous Tom Fazio blow-up that will result in D.C. golf becoming less affordable and accessible. Doffermyre is allegedly very interested in becoming a big muckety-muck in the golf world. Good luck with that, Bill!

@ChetrosBakke @BobHarig @peachgobbler I was laying out the facts for the benefit of others, not you. I don't care about convincing you.

@garrett_TFE @BobHarig @peachgobbler Garrett : I appreciate the spin. However, as a Fried Egger you have a responsibility to cut through the propaganda ala Brendan and Andy. You sound more like a LIV Bot. I live here and play Langston and EP. What you say above is pure consulting PPT / sales. U ever been here?

@Luke_Elvy @livgolf_league Needed a good laugh today. Thanks, Luke

An investment idea for @livgolf_league - have all the captains pool their massive sign on bonuses from PIF into a consortium & buy the league. It would have to be around $1bn & they can back the concept they committed so strongly to. Would be akin to SSG’s investment into PGAT.

You said NLT's fundraising had stalled. Again, just for the benefit of anyone looking at this thread, that is inaccurate. I have reported this out. NLT's fundraising was robust and ongoing. They had full funding for a $30-million Rock Creek project. They had funding for planning and compliance at Langston, which was next on the list. And they had more left over, just sitting in their bank account. The EP improvements were going to come last, partly because the profitability of the facility was enabling work on the other courses. NLT's fundraising performance was objectively exceptional for a municipal-golf operator, and there is every reason to believe it would have continued if the administration hadn't stepped in. The timelines of the projects were dependent on the compliance process, not fundraising. Those are facts.

@BobHarig @peachgobbler @garrett_TFE Bob- you are simply a hack. You called me deranged for pointing out NLT never renovated the course. Then continued on with insults. What I said to Garrett is true. If you argue that Trump’s idea is bad, that is a rational argument- but acknowledge that the status quo is a dump.

@pnrodenbush Yes. Rumors are circulating that pressure is being placed on the governing bodies to bump a venue within the next decade or so.

@garrett_TFE Beyond the logistical issues, congressional is already slated to host the ryder cup right up the road and the usga has their venues set for like the next 30 years.

@garrett_TFE @alxkirkland @KVanValkenburg I’m here now. 718 rounds of golf over blue, white, and red today. Place is firm and bouncy. Bermudagrass hasn’t woken up. Golf course is in good shape. Not to mention the play on the recently renovated mini golf course. East Potomac is for the people. Period.

@TZurybida @alxkirkland @KVanValkenburg Pretty funny that someone could say something this inaccurate and then accuse *others* of derangement. Place is packed sunrise to sunset.

@alxkirkland @garrett_TFE @KVanValkenburg Nobody plays it. Except for the 130,000 rounds played at East Potomac in 2025.

These two renderings of a potential "reimagined" East Potomac Park appear in a fundraising document distributed by the new "National Garden of American Heroes Foundation." It's unclear to what degree these (very AI-looking) images represent Tom Fazio's actual plans for the golf course, but I think they reveal some important things about the Trump administration's intentions at East Potomac: 1) The new "championship" golf course would take up most of the island. This would mean losing the perimeter road and bike path, the open space at the southern tip of the island, and perhaps even the famous cherry blossom trees, which feature prominently in an annual festival. These non-golf resources at East Potomac Park are used heavily by D.C. residents. 2) Building a bigger course would also mean reducing the number of available golf holes at the facility, likely from 36 to 18, as well as eliminating a historic, recently restored mini-golf course. Inevitably, this would make golf in D.C. less accessible, especially to beginning golfers. 3) Green fees for East Potomac's Blue Course currently top out at $48. There's no way the number would stay there post-reno. 4) The whole nouveau-riche, water-feature-centric aesthetic shown in the renderings is very much in line with Fazio's past work, but not at all representative of East Potomac's historical character and purpose. 5) The administration and the President himself have been open about their hopes to bring a major championship or Ryder Cup to the renovated East Potomac. I think it would be tremendously difficult to stage a tournament of that scale on this island, even after the reno. It does not appear to me that there's enough room.

@TwitttrlessJohn @fried_egg_golf Not a publicly released document. @RickMaese was first to report on it, and I obtained a copy.

@garrett_TFE @fried_egg_golf Do you have a link for this image? Or is it a private document?

@musicbybimb That's more or less what NLT intended to do, while also bringing back an element of the original reversible concept

@garrett_TFE Just update the exisiting courses with better routing and bunkers

And if anyone tries to bring up Cobbs Creek and The Park as the models for this proposed project, keep in mind that Cobbs Creek and The Park were struggling, deteriorating, and on the verge of disappearing forever before they were revived by major fundraising and renovation efforts. East Potomac is an extremely popular, profitable facility that serves a critical purpose in D.C. golf. It is a completely different situation.

@teekkelly @KVanValkenburg A source at one of the governing bodies joked to me that they might have to stage parking at the Pentagon.

@garrett_TFE @KVanValkenburg Imagine the media shuttle situation at the PGA Championship here

@Jesse583443 "TDS" is really all you guys have, huh? Anyway, bye.

@garrett_TFE I'm a DC resident who knows a hell of a lot more than you about public golf here and the total waste NLT has been. Keep writing your TDS-fueled articles from a far, they are obviously doing nothing to make a difference.

@Jesse583443 Let me know who you are and we can talk like equals. Until then, no reason for us to interact.

@garrett_TFE 😂 Typical response from TDS Garrett, who has no real ideas and cannot handle any pushback. Keep writing your rage-bait articles that lack any real substance, bud.

@traddfromme @BurritoBrosShit @RickMaese Yes, all of those are viable. East Potomac, on the other hand, is a small island in the middle of a river.

@BurritoBrosShit @garrett_TFE @RickMaese TPC Avenel, Robert Trent Jones GC, Trump’s course in Virginia (at least for LIV), maybe some others I’m not remembering

This is what I’ve been hearing about the proposed Trump/Fazio course at East Potomac, now beginning to be confirmed by @RickMaese. Because of the (likely unrealistic) wish to bring a major championship to the facility, the course would have to be massive. This would probably mean cutting the number of holes at East Potomac in half and eliminating many of the popular non-golf areas on the island (roads, walking paths, picnic areas).

@HochsteinDesign @Jesse583443 That would mean, in many cases (including perhaps this one), regulating themselves

@garrett_TFE @Jesse583443 How about instituting legislation regulating inflammatory bots instead of taking people’s golf courses? Maybe the government could do that…