EARLY LIFE From a young age , McCartin — who is the principal of McCartin Golf Design — was enamored with golf course design . By the time he was 12 , he had read every book about golf course design that was available at the time . McCartin credits his interest in course design to his time spent at East Potomac Park , saying , “ I learned to play there and my theory is that my interest was sparked because having the courses there as a starting point almost gave me a blank slate from which to appreciate architecture . The East Potomac courses are so flat and relatively basic architecturally that when I first branched out to other courses in the area , each new course I saw literally added elements of golf course design — topography , bunkering , greens contouring , etc .”
His brother , Chris McCartin , winner of the 2006 VSGA Amateur Championship , says he remembers seeing Michael sketch holes on napkins at the dinner table . “ He ’ d do it pretty often . They weren ’ t just sketches , they were holes with real design features , it was amazing watching him do that from just a blank canvas ,” said Chris .
On his brother ’ s upcoming redesign project , Chris said , “ When he wrote his thesis about this exact redesign of East Potomac , he assumed it would never happen and he ’ d never get to do it , so it ’ s pretty amazing he ’ s getting the opportunity to do something he ’ s always dreamed of doing and I ’ m excited to see that course finally get all the love it deserves .”
McCartin is the co-founder of National Links Trust , a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and protect affordability , accessibility and engaging golf architecture at municipal courses throughout the U . S . In October , the National Park Service signed a 50-year lease with NLT to operate the three historic D . C . courses .
“ National Links Trust will provide longterm care to these historic courses and affordable opportunities to golf in our nation ’ s capital ,” acting NPS National Capital area director Lisa Mendelson-Ielmini
PAUL PIERCE
28 V IRGINIA G OLFER | N OVEMBER / D ECEMBER 2020
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