Former PGA of America CEO, Seth Waugh, to Serve as Honorary Chair of National Links Trust Campaign

Waugh to Aid Campaign to Rehabilitate Washington, DC’s Three Municipal Golf Courses

Washington, DC - November 14, 2024 – National Links Trust (NLT), a non-profit organization founded in 2019 in Washington, DC dedicated to positively impacting the local community and changing lives through affordable and accessible municipal golf, announced today that Seth Waugh, former CEO and Current Senior Advisor to the PGA of America, will serve as Honorary Chairman of the Nation’s Capital Project. The Nation’s Capital Project is NLT’s long-term project that seeks to revitalize and rehabilitate Washington, DC’s three historic municipal golf courses – Rock Creek Park Golf, Langston Golf Course, and East Potomac Golf Links – as part of their 50-year lease with the National Park Service signed in 2020. In his role, Waugh will be an advisor to the Capital Campaign committee and serve as an ambassador of National Links Trust.

“National Links Trust’s work aligns closely with my personal and professional dedication to helping make golf more inclusive and accessible,” Waugh says. “This project, undertaken on the national stage, works towards this goal of making sure golf is a game for everyone.”

Waugh served as the CEO of the PGA of America for six years from 2018 through June of this year. During his time, he oversaw a number of consequential decisions including moving the organization’s headquarters to Frisco, TX and executing a wide-reaching public-private partnership in the process, leading a $100 million capital campaign for the PGA REACH Foundation, establishing a nearly $8 million Golf Emergency Relief Fund in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and engineering the organization’s first deferred compensation retirement plan for members. A staunch advocate for equity and access to the game, Waugh also advanced inclusionary practices from the PGA of America to grow the game of golf by launching "PGA Places to Play" which provided community access to underserved populations and helped raise over $35 million in support of projects nationwide, starting with $1.75 million in grants. As it relates specifically to community-focused municipal golf facilities, Waugh was instrumental in the revitalization of The Park-West Palm, the highly acclaimed Gil Hanse - Jim Wagner renovated facility in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“We are honored and excited to have Mr. Waugh as part of our campaign,” Damian Cosby, Executive Director of NLT, says. “As a Class-A PGA Professional, I have seen first-hand what his leadership can do for an organization and what he has done for the game as a whole, and we are eager to bring his expertise to NLT.”

An Affordable, Accessible, Equitable, and Engaging Future for Golf in the Nation’s Capital

 The Nation’s Capital Project is NLT’s first large-scale capital campaign. Having assumed operations of Washington’s three historic municipal courses – Rock Creek Park Golf, Langston Golf Course, and East Potomac Golf Links –  in 2020 after signing a 50-year lease with the National Park Service, NLT has brought about sweeping changes to the courses, investing in short-term improvements to the facilities, expanding instructional programs to grow the game in the city, partnering with leaders in environmental sustainability on projects at the courses, and implementing community impact programs like the Jack Vardaman Workforce Development Program, an internship and caddie program that provides kids and teens from the local community with life and job skills, an income, and pathways to college scholarships. The Nation’s Capital Project will rehabilitate the city’s courses and allow for NLT to increase their impact in the Washington, DC community while providing access to even better affordable, accessible, equitable, and engaging golf.

Signed on to provide pro-bono architectural services at the revitalized facilities are Gil Hanse (Rock Creek Park Golf), Beau Welling (Langston Golf Course), and Tom Doak (East Potomac Golf Links). Approval for the first leg of the project, Rock Creek Park Golf, was secured in September of this year with the approval body, the National Capital Planning Commission, lauding the project’s inclusive design and expected positive impact on the community.

Learn more about the Rock Creek Park Golf Project here.

More About National Links Trust

Founded in 2019, National Links Trust (NLT) is a non-profit dedicated to positively impacting the Washington, DC community and changing lives through affordable and accessible municipal golf. NLT has a 50-year lease with the National Park Service to operate and rehabilitate Washington, DC’s three public golf courses - Rock Creek Park Golf, Langston Golf Course, and East Potomac Golf Links - that are valuable historic and cultural assets. NLT leads community-focused programs like the Jack Vardaman Workforce Development Program – an internship and caddie program for local youth and adolescents – and is working towards undertaking a series of renovation projects dubbed ‘The Nation’s Capital Project’. Learn more at NationalLinksTrust.org.