One of the oldest golf courses in the District is getting a much needed makeover.
The National Park Service announced plans to begin rehabilitation of the historic Rock Creek Park golf course later this year -- but the rehab is not without controversy.
About 100 acres of greens and fairways are nestled in the golf course in upper Northwest D.C. The Rock Greek Park Golf course has been home to golfers for 100 years -- but as anyone who's played the course will tell you, it's fallen into rough times.
Rather than the typical 18 holes, the course only has 14. Those are the only holes that are playable right now, as some of the course has become overgrown or fallen into disrepair.
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News that a complete rehab of the course will begin soon is great news for some of the golfers who play there.
"I think it's an awesome short course," said Chris Chapman, one of those golfers. "It's perfect for being close to the city and being in the city. I live in the city, so it's really convenient. It's great."
"I'm excited because the 15 holes, I want 18. I'm really excited for them to have a driving range."
The course is managed by the National Links Trust, a nonprofit that operates all three of the National Park Service golf courses in D.C.
Damian Cosby, a spokesperson for the Trust, tells News4 the work will be done over the next two years, and include a full 18-hole course, a new clubhouse and a new putting green and driving range.
"The driving range will have all the technology you want," Cosby said. "would want a driving range, top, top tracer technology. So that'll take about a year. And then we hope right after we get phase one done, we'll start construction on the full bag, nine hole golf course and the nine hole short course."
The cost of the rehabilitation project is estimated to be more than $25 million, which will all be raised from private donations.
"We believe there are enough like-minded individuals who care about what municipal golf stands for, what it should be for -- an on-ramp for those who have never had access to the game before," Cosby said. "For those that want to come back to the game. Golf shouldn't just be for people that can afford to have a membership. It should be for everybody."
While many people are excited about the plans, many others are concerned about the impact to the environment. Several environmental groups raised concerns last year that the rehab will include removal of more than 1,100 trees.
"There's about 1,100 trees that are slated to come out, about half of those trees are invasive or poor condition, so we're also thinking about golfer safety at the same time," said Michael Stachowicz of the National Park Service.
"When we're done with this, we anticipate that there will be almost an acre more canopy of native trees," Stachowicz said.
The plans are to keep the course open in some capacity throughout the rehab, which will begin this fall. The new club house will be home to First Tee D.C. -- a golf program for young people that we featured last month.
