Penderbrook Golf Club

For a local club, it is nice that it is open to the public. The staff was okay, not super friendly or accommodating. Our group felt a bit rushed out on the 1st hole. Would have preferred them push our tee time back than rush us along. The holes were challenging with a lot of water and bunkers, but not overall narrow.

this course has multiple problems from tee to green. Poorly maintained tee boxes with no grass, greens that looked like never manicured, old ball marks, divots, goose droppings all over or paid any attention and most of all goose droppings all over the place, can not avoid at any place on course. Snack bar between 9-10 was open but had no food, girl inside told us go clubhouse you need anything....DO NOT RECOMMEND UNLESS LAST CHOICE

I live only a few miles away but have never played here. I saw a great prepaid value on Golfnow.com so I took it. I was supposed to be paired up with three folks but one cancelled so we went out as a threesome. Other than having to wait on carts because they didn't have enough for the number of golfers out on the course...it was a Saturday afternoon...everything was great!

I played Penderbrook Golf Cours in Fairfax, VA today after avoiding it for over ten years for poor condition. I thought, perhaps, the new management would have taken the bold moves needed to bring the course back up to standard.

Nope. It didn't happen.

In fact, it shows another ten years of overuse and poor maintenance. Even the men's room is nasty, starting with a filthy door and broken handle. Who cares about the rest room? It's a great indicator of the overall attitude of both cleanliness and maintenance of the property.

Right from the start, you can see that watering the course is not a priority. Despite near record rain this season, the grass was brown throughout the rough, and many fairways were in horrid shape with either bare dirt (hardpan) or a variety of invasive weeds. The tee boxes had been recently aerated and de-thatched, but to no avail. They were terrible.

I can't say too much about the greens other than they were green. It was obvious that Penderbrook has the same issues with thoughtless golfers who earnestly believe that someone else should clean up after them. But, that does not excuse the apparent lack of interest by the greens crew in changing out the cups each morning. I didn't find a single cup with a 'clean edge' on the entire course.

I was also amazed that the traps appeared to be deliberately compacted and almost void of actual sand. Except the final hole. It looks like they used the entire load of fresh sand in that one trap. I guess it makes the course look good from the clubhouse.

I managed to get a same-day teetime online for $40 and I wish I hadn't. This course reminded me of the courses I played in high school back in Connecticut. Hubbard Heights and Fairchild Wheeler were both cow pastures with no grass and hardpan in excess. Balls hit only slightly off line would careen wildly into the ditch, the brush or the street.

The real sad part, however, is that the course design is evil and ingenious. It took great expertise to shoehorn eighteen holes on the tiny parcel so the developer could maximize profits from the homes located barely off the fairways. However, such a design needs softer fairways to hold the 'target shots' required from many tees. The best, horrible example is hole number 8, which requires a layup from an elevated tee to a peninsula landing zone. Eighty percent of decent shots should stay somewhere in the landing zone. Because of the concrete fairway, I'd guess only about 20% might stay out of the water.

I can't tell you why the management has allowed this potential gem to go into the crapper in the past 15 years. Perhaps they want to drive golfers away and build more homes.

Bottom line: save your money and go play one of the munis in the area. They are ALL in better shape than this cow pasture.

Don't waste your money. Sloooooow play, no marshall, and a dirt track

This course could be a hidden gem but unfortunately the back nine is in bad condition. The front looked and played great but the back had burnt greens, shoddy tee-boxes, and seems to be battling water grass on nearly all of the fairways. Also, most of the traps were like parking lots - the drainage is not working and needs to be repaired. The layout is interesting but I'll wait a few years before considering playing again. If they improved the conditions this would easily be a great course.

they have no rangers, we went as two some, with 3 more pairs of two some.
and in this part of the country the ones in front of you would not ask you if you want to join them, almost never, so we were there waiting on every tee box for 20 to 25 minutes.

for the money, they need a ranger who pair people up to speed up play, the round was almost six hours.

If you take your game some what serious this is not the play for you.
if you just want to waste the day away, then this is your place.

Until they do something too speed up play, I do not recommend this place.

All in all an enjoyable day of golf. Course was in okay shape. Some serious areas of fairway construction. First cut around the greens could have used some attention, but overall for a course going into August it was in good shape.

How do you have three groups on a hole for almost the whole back nine? No ranger to speed things up and the tee times here have always been so close together and packed, it makes for always a slow day on this course.

Fix that, and I'm back, but not again for for now. It's so frustrating to play there.

Boxes, greens and fairways were in good shape. Food and beer prices are great. Gnats were unbearable. The 4 some in front of us could have picked the pace up on the back nine but over all a very enjoyable experience

Great course great staff love golfing in Fairfax county

The course quality was awful. It doesn't seem like the course is maintained to a proper standard. The course is dry and felt like hitting off concrete. I will never play here again

This course hasn't changed in ten years and had its best days in the 90's. Golfnow had tee times on Saturday for $70 till 2pm. I found a hot deal for $45. For the conditions, facilities, and staff this is too much even for the weekend. The fairways are in ok shape but they were shaggy and the course lacks overall definition. The greens rolled ok but lots of ball marks not repaired and some dead/bare spots, also on the shaggy side. Yardage markers, sprinklers, and drains not maintained they need to have the grass trimmed around the edges to help them stand out. Bunkers need to be maintained, edges shaggy and all had somewhat packed sand and not a crisp look to the hazard as a whole. Putting cups hadn't been changed in a few days, edges were very rough and not sharp. All fairways, rough, collar, and first cut areas have weeds, dead spots and multiple blends of grasses giving a messy, unappealing look. Pace of play was 4:45 minutes. It's a little wacky, short tight course that's fun to play and I enjoyed my time. All it needs is some money to increase there maintance budget to allow for more attention to detail and add definition to the course. Help the fairways stand out more from the rough and mow the greens with a mower less wide. Currently it looks like a large mower makes 4-5 passes on the green instead of thinner lines around 20-25 passes. Just little things to improve conditions and the look of the course. I wouldn't pay more then $50 on the weekends for the conditions do not warrant a $1 more. Immediate change to the staff is needed, a few ok guys but overall it seems to be run by college/high school kids with a total lack of customer service. Short talk and unfriendly, no engaging in conversation or pretending like they give a hoot that people are coming to play the course which keeps them employed. The ranger literally just made laps around the course. No waves no hello no conversation during a wait on a tee box just drove around, literally.

Finished 18 holes in about 4 1/2 hours. Found a good rate with a hot deal on Golf Now. Will probably come back to play Pendebrook again. Course is in good shape.

Opted to walk Sat, 5/30
but rate was same as with cart...would like to see an option for walking rate cheaper than cart rate.

This was my first time playing at Penderbrook. They have a nice deal where you could join the Commonwealth Club and get some nice deals on green fees and get a 9th round for free. The staff was super friendly and helpful. The course was in great condition. You could tell the staff puts a good amount of care in appearance. Some challenging holes with a decent amount of water hazards (I was humbled). The fairways are kind of narrow, so you have to hit straight. You need to check this out if you live in the DC Metro area.

For not having played in a year and a half, my game was herendous. No fault of the golf club. Course was in great shape and the staff was very friendly. The pace of play was awesome. We got around in about 4 hours. I have rounds elsewhere that took nearly 6 hours due to overcrowding. All in all a great experience. There is a lot of water hazards and a few tight holes.

This is a good course if you're looking to play a quick round. But they are rebuilding a lot of the greens so there is sand and aeration holes that throw off your pots and make the turf a little hard for your approach shots.

Greens were like putting on concrete. Pin locations were penal. Winter took it's toll on this course.

I got a great price thru Golfnow and weather was finally permitting play. Course was in good condition and fairly empty, as it was a week day. Was great to be out and great to get such a good price as well for 2 players.