GAINESVILLE, Va. - It's the ladies turn.

The vaunted Robert Trent Jones Golf Club outside of Washington D.C. hosted the first four Presidents Cups on American soil from 1994 to 2005, plus a token PGA Tour event: the 2015 Quicken Loans National hosted by Tiger Woods.

The 2024 Solheim Cup might be the club's most compelling professional golf event yet. Social media and international pride - not to mention the growing popularity of women's golf (and golf in general) - have stoked the passionate fires of modern international showcases like the Solheim, Presidents and Ryder Cups.

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The U.S. women are generally favored on paper in the Solheim Cup every two years against their European counterparts - they lead the series 10-7-1 - but the Europeans won in 2019 and 2021, and then retained the cup last year in Spain. It's probably safe to call this a toss-up with the Americans hoping the home soil advantage tilts the cup in their favor. The venue, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, couldn't be more delicious for television.

RTJGC uses the shoreline of Lake Manassas better than perhaps any other lakefront course in the world. The waters seem omnipresent as players plot their way around the routing, which will play roughly 6,741 yards for the women. The clubhouse looks like a grand mansion, although it really isn't part of the backdrop other than the first tee.

The club's namesake - Robert Trent Jones Sr. - designed the 7,425-yard course in 1990, along with associates Roger Rulewich and Kyle Phillips, who has gone on to his own distinguished architectural career. They masterfully weaved the final 10 holes along the water, using a marshy inlet to their advantage. There's enough elevation change and wind off the water to keep players guessing about the proper shot selection. The funny thing is that ponds on each nine are more in play than the actual lake. It's just the eye candy on a classic championship test.

Robert Trent Jones Golf Club

Gainesville, Virginia

Private

5.0

3

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Let's take a tour of one of the East Coast's most coveted private clubs:

This dogleg right starts the players on their journey with an uphill climb over or around a fairway bunker on the right side of the bend. Although the two greenside bunkers are a concern, it's just as important to stay below the hole on the approach shot.

This straightforward hole also plays slightly uphill with a bunker on either side of the fairway. The approach shot could play a full club longer and must avoid the left-front bunker. A shot to the middle of the putting green will kick right. Too much spin could send the ball back to the front-right section of the green.

This fairway doglegs hard right, protected at the corner by multiple fairway bunkers. Bigger hitters can gain an advantage by taking them on. If successful, the player will only have an approach shot of 120 yards or less depending on the landing spot. A large bunker front right will be more daunting for players with a longer club coming in. The green is difficult to hold with a long iron or wood.

No. 4 is the only par 3 not on the lake, but the fronting pond makes for an intimidating shot. The green bends like a banana around the front bunker, leaving two shelves for front hole locations on either side. The left side features a slope that feeds balls to the hole if struck just right.

Another dogleg right, the fifth is one of three reachable par 5s at RTJ. A big drive will clear the farther of the two bunkers guarding the corner. Balls can be lost on the right if a player gets too carried away with a go-for-broke swing. The uphill approach should be relatively easy to an elevated putting green well guarded by two bunkers left and one right.

The final dogleg right in the opening sequence, No. 6 requires a drive up the left side to miss the two fairway traps on the right. The putting green has three distinct bays and is relatively flat in the front and back left. Back right rolls deceptively fast from left to right.

No. 7 turns around in the opposite direction within the forest, playing as a slight dogleg left. If the wind was helping down the sixth, it's suddenly a nuisance here. The smart tee ball flies up the right side to avoid the left-hand fairway bunker. The back of the green gets narrower the farther back you go, while the front of the green slopes right to left towards Lake Manassas.

No. 8 doubles back again, falling slightly downhill off the tee before climbing again. With no fairway bunkers, it's time to swing away. The front of the green is open allowing shots to bounce on should they miss the greenside bunkers on either side.

No. 9 introduces the lake in dramatic fashion, playing from elevated tees down to a peninsula green jutting into the water. Bunkers flank a difficult putting surface. Given how hard it is to judge the wind and elevation change, par remains a good score.

The 10th is the shortest par 4 on the course, although that lake view messes with a player's depth perception and makes it feel more expansive. Players afraid of hooking their tee shot into the water will bail out right, likely ending up on the hillside with a crooked stance out of the rough. It's important to hit the proper tier on the green.

The signature hole is a stunner of a par 3, tumbling downhill to a peninsula holding a narrow green, where Lake Manassas lurks front, back and left. The pot bunker short is the only thing that will keep a ball out of the water. Watching the waves might assist in choosing the correct club. 

The shortest par 5 on the golf course is offset by the arduous climb skyward to the green. With no fairway bunkers, players will have no excuse for missing in the rough. It's hard to judge the approach to a blind green because players can't see how severely the green runs away from them toward the lake. The front bunkers will likely only get action on severely mishit wedges or by those going for it in two.

A solid drive avoiding the fairway bunker on the right is important to set up the best approach to this demanding green. The fairway drops off into a valley that will take the ball into the left rough where players could get a bad lie. Laying back to stay on top of the ridge for a level lie might be the better percentage play, leaving 165 yards in. Flying the two front bunkers to flirt with a back-right hole location brings long into play.

Depending on where the tee is and what the wind is doing, this is a great risk/reward dogleg left. Players who can sling a draw around the corner over the fairway bunkers will set up a heroic attempt to go for the green in two. The split-level green features a left side sitting just over a pond. The right side is about 6 feet higher with the ridge running diagonally through the center, acting as a backboard to funnel shots to the lower level. For those who go for it in two and end up long, the downhill pitch toward the pond is treacherous.

The 15th turns around on the opposite side of the marshy inlet and doglegs left over three fairway bunkers. The fairway widens to 40 yards past the bunker complex, leaving a short iron of 140 yards or less to a green that slopes right to left towards Lake Manassas.

This short par 3 plays almost a full club downhill with a flanking bunker front left. The two toughest hole locations are front left and back left since those sections of the putting green are quite small targets. Finding the wrong quadrant on this large and undulating putting green makes for a very difficult two-putt.

This short par 4 requires perhaps the most accurate tee shot of the day between the trees. The fairway narrows to 25 yards at one point, making laying back away from the two fairway bunkers on the left a solid option. A walnut tree that sits 70 yards from the green on the right could mess with approach shots. Misses left and long will bound down the hillside toward the lakeshore.

Most matches don't traditionally make it to no. 18 in international competitions, but this hole will be ready when they do. The final par 4 doglegs left with a tee shot that flirts with a grove of trees and a pair of bunkers at the turn. A bailout right could kick the ball back into the fairway or leave a hanging lie that's tough to manage for even the strongest players. The green sits below the fairway right on Lake Manassas, only a few yards from the water. A narrow bunker on the left might actually save shots from drowning.