Trump administration reaches deal with non-profit over DC golf courses

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration and a non-profit group that runs Washington, D.C.’s public golf courses reached a deal on Friday under which the organization will have a new long-term lease of two courses while federal officials will overhaul a third one.

The two sides released a joint statement on Friday. Here are some details:

• The National Links Trust non-profit will have a new long-term lease to operate and redevelop Langston Golf Course and Rock Creek Park Golf, the statement said.

• The statement added that the non-profit will continue to operate East Potomac Golf Links on an interim basis until the Interior Department’s National Park Service starts what it calls a “historic restoration” of the waterfront course.

• All three public golf courses in the U.S. capital will remain open, the statement added.

• In December, the Trump administration ended National Links’ previous deal to oversee D.C.’s public golf courses.

• Critics saw the cancellation as another step in Trump’s push to remake the look of the nation’s capital.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Kim Coghill)