Old Hickory Golf Club

The greens on this course were not in great shape. Especially not for this time of year. Expected more from old hickory since it is such a pricey place to play.

Overall a good round. Not crowded at all. Greens needed some work, but aside from that, nice course.

This course used to be in good shape. Now it’s terrible. Worst course I’ve played in the area. Not worth the money. Lots of better courses for the price.

Course layout was very interesting and has potential to be a gorgeous course but for $80 for 3 o’clock on a Saturday I would expect much better conditions. The greens had complete dirt patches scattered about the fairway was completely trashed. If the course conditions were in good shape, I can only imagine it’s a phenomenal course though. I was a Single playing on a Saturday afternoon another Single joined up with me and we waited at every hole for a threesome in front of us. It was almost a five hour round and it wasn’t overly busy.

The years of neglect have come to roost. This year’s weather has about done this track in. The fairways were in awful condition, even by old hickory standards. The greens are like putting on brick walkways. No chance of a putt of any distance staying on track. The bunkers turn into lakes at the hint of rain. I guess when you are greeted in the parking lot by 2 foot crab grass in the mulch beds, you shouldn’t be surprised about the course. The only good thing about this place is it keeps 150 open tee times on other courses.

The layout and design of the course is great! The bunkers offer a challenging experience off the tee on almost every hole! The drinking water is a complimentary feature to any golf course and this one has water on at least 6 of the 18 holes which is very nice.

Conditions. The course is in complete disarray right now. The most important aspect in the game of golf is getting the ball in the hole... At this time, there is no guarantee that you will make a 2' putt in a straight line on any green on the entire course! Most of the time, if the course is in that bad of a condition, a sizable discount is applied to offset the disappointment of the conditions. The "hot deal" on Golf Now was for around $20 off bringing the total to around $80 for 18 holes, that is an absolute outrage to expect your patrons to pay that much money for a course you CANNOT putt on. From the end of the summer in 2024 to now, that was the worst green experience I have ever played on. In our group of four (4), we all struggled to 2 putt.. even from 8 feet away! We are also all sub 15 handicaps so, no a lot of three putts in our rounds usually.

I'm sure this review along with the millions each year people put up, will go unnoticed and nothing will change. It's just extremely aggravating for someone who's trying to support a family, that takes one day for themselves a week, has to pay that much money for those conditions. And when you ask the pro shop "how's your greens looking?", they always say "everything is looking good!" This course should be taking the next month and a half off to fix your greens and other conditions, it's criminal what your charging vs what you're offering.

I’ve wanted to try this course for some time but the logistics never worked out until today. The greens were terrible. They were spotty and really beat up. I’m hoping that it was just because of the time of year and not something else. The staff were all friendly and the pace of play was relatively good for a Sunday mid morning/ early afternoon. For the money I have far more better options closer to me.

As an avid golfer new the area and interested in exploring all the courses in the DMV, I’d heard this course talked about a lot as a solid course in NoVa. I wanted to play it at least once, regardless of current conditions and high price to see for myself. I’d say the word on the street is accurate. I have no personal context of how this course was in the past but I can tell it probably was a premier course at one time, but it is not at this time. I played on a Sat morning. The neat old clubhouse feels like an abandoned building. Driving range is sad and small … really short, and poorly maintained. Mats are sad. Practice green grass was terrible. Starter was very nice, but nowhere to be found and rolled up out of nowhere in a cart from doing other duties. Seemed haphazard. No tee markers on the tee boxes because they apparently get stolen so they just have a stake in the ground on the side. Feels odd. Overall, course has a unique challenging layout winding through the neighborhood, though I did feel like a few holes were a bit hokey. A handful of unfairly narrow and small fairways and landing zones. That seems to be a trend, in my opinion, of courses that wind through neighborhoods. Overall, conditions were very poor. Fairway grass was bad, greens were bad and bumpy, bunkers were straight up unplayable. I’d heard whispers that it was much attributed to the rain and hot stretches this summer annihilating the grass. That may be partially true, but I think it’s just a small part.

This course has trended downward for years. Tough weather/summer season, I get it. But the conditions have never been worse. Greens are unplayable. Fairways and tee boxes resemble that of a $20 dog track.

Our cart battery was dying so we called on 5 tee box…said they’d be out in 5-10 mins to swap it out. Never came. Switched our own cart at the turn. That cart battery started to flash while on 13ish hole and cart slow and shaking a few holes later.

We learned from an employee that they were around a year overdue on replacing their fleet of carts and that the batteries on most every cart can’t hold a charge for a round (great management!).

Pace of play was painful…we skipped the last couple holes because we were staring at 5.5 hours. Placard in the cart says pace should be 12-15 mins a hole, 4:30 for a round. We spoke to staff as we waited on 4 tee box and expressed that we were at exactly 1 hour through three holes. He was shocked and said he’d drive up and figure out where the logjam was.

Nothing ever changed. Brutal pace continued.

Two different employees expressed these reasons for the poor pace:

1) every tee time was booked that AM (LOL, who cares?)

2) the starter had to leave early and that’s why the course was backed up (LOL, I’m sure that matters)

No care. No enforcement. No accountability.

If you want to spend well over $100 for an all anround awful experience golfing, this is the place to go.

Course was great, staff was extremely friendly, would definitely play again, however, there must have been something with the grass because the greens were burnt and in terrible condition.

mud and dust on fairway even on green as well as tee boxes

I've played Old Hickory a bunch over the years. Rarely was it ever in great condition but the last few years it has gone steadily downhill. The greens are a mess. Not a lot of healthy grass, lots of packed dirt, etc. Something you would expect at a local muni not a course that charges $80ish during the week and $100ish on the weekend. This is a $30-40 course at best. Most fairways and tee boxes are not very good. I guess they are working on the bunkers since they were all GUR. Maybe it can be saved in the fall/winter but I will avoid it at all costs for the rest of the summer.

First time playing Old Hickory. Driving range was a joke - very few spots and all woods had to be hit into a net. Didn’t feel warmed up before our round. Greens are in terrible condition - maybe that’s normal for August but the price we paid I expected more investment into the course. Phone number for the grill went to voicemail. At the turn the only thing ready for grab and go was hot dogs. Course was very backed up so you would think they want people to make the turn quickly. The layout isn’t that great. Individual holes were fine but the clubhouse isn’t anywhere near #1 or #10. This may be a better course in the spring or fall but many other courses are better laid out than this one.

Most of the greens were patchy. Fairways were unkept.

I’ve always liked the layout. Years ago it was a premier course - lush fairways, beautiful greens, nice bunkers. Today it’s a shell of its past glory: fairways have as much bare earth as grass, greens roll fast (and for the most part true) but lack grass on many holes. Fairways and greens look like disease have hit them. Maybe the weather this year has made it hard for the maintenance crews to keep up. Other courses in the area have nicer grounds, so they seem to have figured out how to deal with the weather issues. Seems like the fees are too high for the course at this time. Clubhouse attendant was very friendly. Pace of play was average to slow, not because it was crowded, it wasn’t. Two groups of three were playing the yellow tees. They weren’t good enough. Play tees consistent with your skill level!

Conditions are terrible. Fairways are full of crab grass and disease. Greens are slow and bunkers are rock hard. We used to play here all the time. Now they’re overcharging for a course they obviously don’t invest any money into anymore. Stay away at those prices.

This course was once very nice but the bunkers are no longer sand, there is grass growing from the bunkers on hard dirt. The greens are getting wrecked. The fairways are full of crab grass. The carts are never fully charged or hold very little charge because they never make it through 9 holes let alone 18 holes. It once was an 8 out 10 course but now has been reduced to 2 out of 10. Maybe new ownership is needed? Crew is not helpful.