When Pete Hegseth took over the reins of the Pentagon, he had a plan that involved no DEI, no people of color, no women, and no weakness. In an interview on NBC, Hegseth shared his vision for the Pentagon, “lethality, lethality, lethality…everything else is a distraction.”
Only Pete Hegseth can solve the mystery of what the Pentagon’s 145 military golf courses have to do with lethality. Hegseth also invited Elon Musk’s DOGE to audit the Defense Department and make it more “efficient.” DOGE plans to cut back more than 80,000 jobs from the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, golf courses will not be on the cutting board.
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The Pentagon’s Military Golf Courses and Their Costs
The idea behind the military golf courses is a noble one: boosting morality and improving the quality of life for personnel and their families.
The golf courses come under the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation programs by the US military. Golf courses aim to promote rest and recreation during stressful periods or downtime. However, the biggest problem with the Pentagon’s military golf courses is their maintenance and operation costs, which both Hegseth and Musk are more than eager to ignore.
The Pentagon spends about $600,000 per year for the maintenance of each golf course. The cost can go as high as $1 million per year as seen in the case of Cardinal Golf Course at Fort Lee, Virginia. A conservative estimate suggests that the Pentagon spends over $140 million annually on just the maintenance, the actual figures could be much higher.
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Why Is the Pentagon Splurging on Sand Traps?
While Trump and Musk are busy gutting important government bodies like USAID and the Department of Education, the Pentagon is looking to pour millions into renovating 35 military golf course sand traps in Germany. It’s also looking to make some upgrades to the golf course at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico and US Military Academy in New York.
The criticism of the Pentagon’s military golf courses dates back to a 1965 report from the General Accounting Office that recommended selling the golf courses and using the taxpayer’s money more “efficiently.” In 1975, Senator William Proxmire also criticized the wasteful spending on golf courses and called it a “waste of the taxpayer’s money.”
According to policy analyst Gabe Murphy, one doesn’t need to be a military strategist to understand that Pentagon-operated golf courses are not essential to national security. Non-profit Taxpayers for Common Sense also mentioned that golf courses tend to serve retirees and dependents rather than active personnel.
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