For these reasons, I have long loved Washington, D.C.’s East Potomac Park, colloquially known as Hains Point.

President Donald Trump has plans to totally overhaul Hains Point and build “a world-class championship golf course.” It would become “one of the best and most spectacular Golf Courses anywhere in the world,” Trump proclaimed.

Trump has hired Tom Fazio, a renowned course architect whose portfolio of 200 courses on two continents includes the PGA National Members Club. Trump himself has obvious success in building and running golf courses, and it would be awesome to play at a world-class golf course at the confluence of two rivers, in view of some of the capital’s great monuments.

And yet, Trump’s vision for Hains Point is a mistake. East Potomac Park is good enough, and the president ought to leave good enough alone.

Sure, fix up the park. Improve the courses a bit. Replace diseased trees. Add some more parking. But like most grand plans out of the federal government, Trump’s great makeover is folly.

A new spending project is irresponsible during record deficits and persistent inflation. Also, there’s plenty of reason to doubt this low, flat, small island could handle the sort of course Trump is planning.

But more importantly, the current use of the island — three low-priced, fairly easy, modest golf courses, plus bike trails, a waterfront park, mini golf, and more — is better than Trump’s dream.

If you don’t live in D.C., and even if you do, you might not know of all the non-golf functions of Hains Point. Families picnic on the south end of the island for the district’s best river view and a great view of planes taking off and landing at Reagan National Airport. Cyclists enjoy the 4.5-mile waterfront loop around the perimeter of the island.

And the golf? It’s perfectly acceptable, and that’s good enough.

I didn’t normally play the 18-hole Blue Course, preferring the 9-hole White Course, which has a more interesting layout and can be played in under two hours. The White Course has only berms and swales, no rolling hills or undulating greens. There aren’t water hazards, unless you hook your tee shot something fierce on 7 and land one in the Washington Channel.

At times and in some places, there are signs of disrepair: water pooling in the sand trap, or dead brown grass on the edge of the green. But for a municipal course, the play was perfectly average, and a perfectly average golf course is a perfect setting for a great time.

My buddies and I would tee off at dusk, as a fox dashed behind the first green towards the high grass around the second tee box. When you tee off on 2, the dome of the Jefferson Memorial is the backdrop. On 8, the pin is silhouetted against the Washington Monument.

You got all this for about $20 on a weekday.

But for the president, this isn’t good enough, and many of his supporters agree.

“Why would anyone ever settle for average in anything when great is an available option?,” Republican lawyer Evan Berryhill asked me on X. “I’m sorry that’s your mindset,” he lamented.

It’s a fair question, which one could answer on many levels.

We could begin with the political concerns mentioned above: The deficit and the tendency of government projects to go over budget and behind schedule.

Then there’s the elitist problem: This course is surely too easy for Trump, and maybe for Berryhill and my other online detractors. But it is just right for the kind of guy who can’t play golf multiple times a week, but instead hits the driving range after putting the kids to bed and sneaks in 9 holes before work on a Monday. What makes a course great and challenging for a scratch golfer, and worthy of a PGA Tour stop, makes it too hard for a working dad who also coaches Little League.

Then there’s the cost: At a bare minimum, a round at Trump’s envisioned course would be $70 if the course were to break even. If Dad brings his three sons, that’s $280, compared to the $36 it costs a family today to play Hains Point’s Par 3 Red Course. This brings up the other massive tradeoff: Trump would replace three courses and 36 holes with one course and 18 holes. That’s cutting by at least 50% the number of possible players on a given day.

And it’s not as if the capital region lacks a top-tier golf course. Congressional, TPC Avenel, the Washington Golf & Country Club, Westwood and Columbia Country Clubs, and Trump’s own Trump National are all within 30 minutes of Georgetown.

But working-class guys deserve a place to play. Busy dads, families, ladies in their 60s, and yes, bad golfers like me deserve a place to play.

Not everything in the world needs to be world-class. The American Dream isn’t just about George Washington, Andrew Carnegie, and Donald Trump. It’s also about Joe Sixpack, a stay-at-home mom, and the guy who runs the gas station in Bowie, Maryland.

American success doesn’t demand fortune, fame, or power. Success in the Land of the Free has always included a family, a hard job, and a modest place to call home.

Yes, America is full of luxury and grandeur and high hopes, but sometimes one good tee shot and a lucky putt is enough to make a man’s day.