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Reviews
Ardglass Golf Club
Played On 06/09/2014Grand golf
Love this course. Compares favorably with Royal County Down in beauty. Not as challenging but more fun and more forgiving. At the Golfnow rate of just 18 GBP, the value far exceeds that of RCD.
Would play it again in a heartbeat.
Falls Road Golf Course
Played On 11/4/2013convenient location helps trump mundane layout
This is a decent course that would be vastly improved with some basic changes on a couple of holes.
First and foremost, the par-5 fourth hole needs to be totally rethought. Whoever dreamed that ending the fairway in the middle of the hole made sense was smoking something illegal. Putting a large tree in the center was bad enough, but making the rough cover the landing area for the second shot was too much. All in all, it spoils the whole round just as you're getting started. It would not take that much effort to improve this hole a great deal.
For the rest, it's not a case of fundamentals; it's just that there are very few "wow" holes. This is mostly just "ho-hum" golf. It does not stack up well with all the upscale courses in the area that are more fun and more esthetically pleasing to play.
Fairway Hills Golf Club
Played On 9/5/2013fun course to play; nice mix/variety of holes
the course is in good shape. aeration three weeks earlier meant the greens were a little slow and some were slightly beat up, but overall putting was fine.
the variety of holes -- some challenging, some easy -- is good, as is the mix of par 4s, 5s, and 3s. pace of play was excellent: i was a single and larger groups readily let me play through. finished in just two and a half hours, even after joining up with a twosome on the back nine.
not for walkers, as there are very long distances between green and tee on several holes. a shame, as i prefer to walk.
no hitting of woods at the practice facility -- a minor minus.
i'll definitely play it again at the great price i had this time.
Hilltop Golf Club
Played On 12/11/2012first-rate course, very playable
even on a cold winter's day, it was worth playing Hilltop for the GolfNow price. and their normal seniors rate would be nice in season.
after a very iffy start (two short par 3s), the course begins to take on real character at the extremely long third hole par 4 (444 yards straight uphill from the tips). the rest of the holes are a kind of jekyll-and-hyde mix, in a good way: long and hard par 3s with medium-length par 4s.
i walked the course despite several warnings (other golfers, pro shop) that it would be taxing. for those who are part mountain goat, it's not that tough a slog (think little bennett or redgate in MD) -- for just nine holes.
overall, a fun experience and one i'm sure to repeat in coming years.
Lake Presidential Golf Club
Played On 12/10/2012excellent course in great shape, especially for mid-december. great value for the price we paid.
when i made the reservation, i called the course to ask what condition it was in. the friendly young woman at the desk said "great" and then laughed and said - "but you know i have to tell you that in any case!" we both chuckled at the time, but she was absolutely right.
much rain the day and night before we played had left the course extremely soggy. still, it was thoroughly playable - made somewhat easier by the fact that they moved the tees up on virtually every hole. had to stick to the cart path - naturally - which slowed the round just a tad, but not that bad.
greens were in great shape and that made putting fun.
the only reason we played was because of the low rate on GolfNow. usually i find the prices here too high, even for a top-end layout.
Walden Golf Club
Played On 11/23/2012very nice layout -- great variety of holes
this course was a very pleasant surprise. a lot of beauty on many holes. fairways and greens were in decent shape this late in the season. way too many leaves on too many greens, however; a little more effort to remove them would have been appreciated. they could improve playing conditions by adding more yardage markers -- they're too hard too find right now. a few marshals would have sped up the pace of play, which was a bit too slow.
the mix of very short and medium par 4s was fun. the longish par 3s were excellent and challenging. at under 5900 yards, the white tees are a bit short; but the green tees were longer than we wanted. another set of tees in between the current whites and greens would be great.
will definitely want to play this course again in the future, but only in spring or early summer (without all the leaves). also, some will be turned off by all the houses on the majority of holes, but we didn't find them a problem.
Montgomery Village Golf Club
Played On 11/12/2012needs work to turn a decent venue into a first-rate one
when asked what shape the fairways were in (because previous reviewers had said they were in poor condition), the guy behind the counter voiced an enthusiastic "they're in great shape." would that were so. the fairways were in poor condition, with many, many hardpan and bare spots, uneven grass, etc.
the course needs to spend some dough on simple fundamentals (no signs pointing toward the next hole on many "blind" turns; few yardage markers in the fairway other than the 200, 150, and 100 markers; sorely beat-up tee boxes).
as is, the course is worth playing for the $25-30 we paid through GolfNow but not worth much more. it would not take big bucks to turn this facility into a much better one.
Patuxent Greens Country Club
Played On 8/6/2012a good course which could be made much better
i've played this course infrequently over many years. i've never found the fairways in great condition. they always have large patches of hardpan or places where the grass has been eaten away or rotted away from either disease, insects, heavy rain, or whatever.
greens are usually pretty decent.
the layout is nice, with variety and a good mix of holes (hard-easy, long-short, etc.).
they don't monitor pace of play closely (or at all). if you're stuck behind a particularly slow foursome, as we were, you've got to take the initiative and ask to play through or you won't enjoy the round much.