Senior
SP TLIGHT
Trump National takes center stage in May for the 2017
KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship | by LEONARD SHAPIRO
B
ACK IN THE SWELTERING
summer of 2015 when he
introduced his newly reno-
vated Donald J. Trump Sig-
nature Golf Course in the
Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington,
D.C., now-President Trump did it in typi-
cally grand style.
He was at the head of a procession of
15 golf carts carrying a slew of local and
national reporters and sponsors on a tour
of the venue. Before it began, he decided to
order his personal helicopter, emblazoned
with TRUMP on the side, to lift off from its
landing pad not far from the ornate club-
house and buzz the property.
“Have him swing around in a big circle,
real low,” Trump told one of his staffers
that day, adding to the theatrical feel of the
day’s proceedings.
Trump was on the grounds that
100-degree afternoon to formally unveil
his $25 million overhaul of the 800-acre
property, with two outstanding golf courses
located in an area known as Lowe’s Island,
by the Potomac River. He initially pur-
chased the private club in 2009 for $13
million, according to property records, “at
the height of the bad market,” he boasted.
All of that hefty investment is clearly
paying off. The PGA of America awarded
the 2017 KitchenAid Senior PGA Cham-
pionship to what is now known as Trump
National Golf Club.
The 2017 event, scheduled for May
23–28, is the first of what Trump hopes
will be many more big-time major tourna-
ments at his venue. Perhaps there will be
PGA Championships, U.S. Opens and Ryder
Cups contested there. He’s also expected to
try to entice Tiger Woods to host his PGA
Tour signature event, the Quicken Loans
National, at Trump National.
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BLOWING IT UP
“What we did is basically blew up the prop-
erty,” Trump said of the renovations in
typical hyperbolic fashion. “We built a
brand-new championship course that is
built to the highest standards of champi-
onship play, to the highest standards of
audience and viewership, to the highest
standards of golf.”
And perhaps best of all to Trump’s typical
way of thinking, he mostly did it his way,
with some help from Tom Fazio II, the son
of the original designer.
Kevin Morris, the 30-year-old head golf
professional at Trump National said Trump
was on the property a number of times
before the rebuild began.
“We’d get in a golf cart—Mr. Trump,
myself, Brad Enie, our director of grounds—
and drive around and he’d make the chang-
es,” said Morris, who worked previously at
Trump Doral in Florida. “He’d add bunkers
and they’d be placed to make sure they were
equally fair from any of the tee boxes. He
wanted to make sure they’d be in play for
everyone. That’s always the key to a great
golf course. And this is a great golf course.”
A new par 3 was crafted—the 230-yard
No. 10 for the Senior PGA event. And
essentially four holes were confiscated
from the River Course to turn the cham-
pionship venue into a beast that will play
at about 7,100 yards to a par of 72 for the
Senior PGA.
This past March, a few months before
he would set out to defend his first career
major championship victory, 2016 winner
Rocco Mediate was asked if he’d ever played
the course.
“I have not,” Mediate began. “But it is our
major…so it’s not going to be easy. It’s not
supposed to be. Hopefully, it’s nasty.”
Not to worry, especially with the redesign.
VIRGINIA
REPRESENTED
Three professionals with ties to Virginia
are in the field for May’s championship:
Tim Lewis (Hampton) (1), Brendan
McGrath (Centreville) (2) and Rick
Schuller (Chester) (3). Additionally,
Maryland’s Ricky Touma (4)—the 2016
Senior Open of Virginia champion—is in
the field. All four qualified on the basis
of finishing in the top 35 of the 2016
Senior PGA Professional Championship .
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