FINAL: The latest in a long line of lifeless 76s left me tied for 10th in my first National Links Trust Championship - the first of many I hope to play in. Someone fix my lag putting, please! The event and the organization overall are an indispensable counterpoint to golf’s creeping affordability crisis. Their mission is boosting golf’s accessibility and camaraderie without high-cost gatekeeping. Golf needs that sort of leadership right now. The NLT Championship fills an essential spot in the competitive golf calendar: a mid-amateur event that centers the public-course golfer and therefore is not based around high-end private golf and does not cost an arm and a leg to play in. Northwest Golf Course in Montgomery County, Maryland, was a wonderful host venue. Congrats to champion Nabeel Khan, who drove 7 1/2 hours from Ohio with wife and children in tow to play, and who will return home a champion of a great American golf tournament. I’ll have more to say about all this at @GOLFPASS this coming week, but for now, a huge thank you to the National Links Trust and their steadfast partners for this event, which represents the best of this great game.

Sitting in 6th place, 3 shots back, thru 18 holes at the @links_national Championship. Weather turned out perfect for R1. Damp and 30 degrees cooler today - let’s see what we’ve got.

NORTHWEST GOLF COURSE Silver Spring, Mary. Ault & Clark, 1964 $67 Course #727 In virtually all ways a typical course of its vintage, with smooth curves, tree-lined corridors and greens with some nice swoop and sway. Some spray-paint-led adjustments would improve it further.

Wheels up this morning to our nation’s capital and the (@links_national) National Links Trust Championship at Northwest G.C. just north of D.C. Tournament rounds Fri/Sat/Sun. Looks like we’re going to be treated to multiple seasons in a single weekend. Extremely excited.