Old Hickory Golf Club

One of my favorite and best courses in the DC metro area. A bit pricey, but worth the cost. Very challenging. Always in excellent condition.

Played Old Hickory this past week with a deal from Golf Now. The course typically costs $70 on a weekday, so the Golf Now Hot deal of $24 was a steal!

The good:
The clubhouse is amazing and the staff is very friendly and attentive. I played as a single and the starter asked if I wanted to play alone or play with another twosome that was familiar with the course. I chose to play with the two some for some course insight.
Play was relatively quick... most likely cause it was the middle of the day in the middle of the week.
Generous landing areas and not many holes where you have to worry about keeping the driver in the bag. I found myself hitting driver (240 yards) and wedge or 9 iron on a lot of holes. Good elevation changes also.

The not so good:
The course was built around a subdivision, so all most every hole is bordered by houses... Could be trouble if you have a wayward driver. The course was also extremely wet, which was odd because it hasn't rained in the DC area in about 2 months. Most of my drives plugged and I was hitting out of a soaked fairway on many of my shots. The day i played the temperature was in the mid 90s, so Im not sure if the superintendent was worried about burning out. The front 9 and back 9 are almost like 2 separate courses. Neither are anywhere near the clubhouse which means walking this course is just about impossible.

The bad:
The amount of divots in the fairways and tee boxes is absolutely absurd. They provide a sand mixture in the cart, but all the bottles on all the carts are empty. On the par 3's, there are no boxes to repair your divots. I know this has been mentioned in previous reviews, but it really takes away from the overall experience of the course.
The green were fast, but littered with ball marks. I had quite a few putts knocked off line.
The range is pretty horrible. Cant hit woods (must hit into net), and it is far away from the clubhouse.

This is the first of the Raspberry Golf Trail courses that i have played. I hope the other highly touted courses are in better shape.

Overall, I would play this course again, but not for the regular greens fees. Definitely not worth spending that kind of money!

Challenging course, at times narrow off the tee easily causing penalty stroke, hard to find yardage on fairway, lots of uneven lies in fairway, poor driving range

I am a big fan of this course, I think it is one of the more challenging courses in the Northern VA area, and I also believe it has the toughest finishing hole around. Greens were really quick today, which is OK with me, but with aeration schedules coming up I think that will slow them down. I just wish it was a little more affordable (usually in the $90s for wknd green fees).

This course will make you use almost every club in your bag. Fairway bunkers will grab wayward drives. The bunkers around the greens are huge and large faced. You have to swing HARD to get out of those things. The greens were very fast as the day got warmer and warmer. They were a bit beat up over the course of the year but never lost their speed. I'd like to suggest that you have flagsticks with reflectors on them so that acquiring distances would be easier for those of us who utilize laser rangefinders. Overall, this is a very nice course that I would play again in the near future.

The course is great, I've played it at least a handful of times. Some interesting holes, fairly forgiving on most tee shots and pretty well maintained.

However, I'm a little upset with management at the moment. It started raining right as we finished #9, so we decided to grab a sandwich and a beer while we waited for the rain to stop. We were told we had to either a) go back out and start playing immediately or b) take rain check because they had an outing (with a shotgun start) going out at a certain time. Didn't really appreciate that as I paid for my round and would have preferred to wait for the rain to let up. We took the rain check ( we were told it would cost another 30 bucks to play a full 18 with the rain check) and I'm now being told it will cost $55 (more than my original greens fee) to go back and play the full 18. Needless to say, I'm a bit annoyed.

Staff is super friendly and course is always in great shape.

Although not super long, OH provides a good test,each and every time out. You need to know where to be (or not to be) or it'll be a long day for the group. Greens are fast and true. One thing that could be improved is a few tee boxes (very thin). Pace was OK, we were 1st group out behind the tournament, but got a great GN rate so it was worth it. Put this course on your list.....

I have played this course a number of times and this one of the the worst conditions I have seen it in. It appears it has been overplayed. The greens had ball marks and small dead spots on them. Balls were hopping when putting because of the uneven path. There was an outing on the course that was not given enough room before they let regular tee times resume so their was a back log. The course is usually much nicer than it was yesterday.

Challenging and narrow at times but playable located in a subdivision lined by homes but with adequate set back.

it's in the hood. Will play again...see review summary

Old Hickory is a stern test of golf. Based on the high number of rounds the course receives, the conditions are somewhat stressed, and greens are kept slow, to prevent burnout (which is expected).

Unfortunately, the pace of play was terrible. Our group teed off at 7:36. There was no course marshall, and the 7:30 group played at a 5+ hour pace, which held up the course, starting from a backup on the first tee. The starter was at the clubhouse, not on the first tee, which provided no visibility to what was occurring on the course.

Our group was forced to leave after 14 holes, as 4+ hours had elapsed, and we no longer could stand the pace of play.

The course brings large elevation changes from tee to green. The greens had recently been punched but they still rolled fairly well for the conditions. The bunkers have very fine and soft sand (great for greenside but the fairway bunkers can be deadly). I would recommend this course for most level of golfers. If you are a beginner this might be a little tough.

The greens are in bad shape. Punching your greens in July with large holes makes putting a joke. 69.00 for a round of golf on punched greens isn't worth it. People don't repair their ball marks or replace their divots either.

This course was a great experience. Great character and challenging layout. Large greens with lots of break. Great conditions considering the wetness. Had a super WOW factor. It was wet the day we played from lots of rain and therefore cart path only and was quite slow but somewhat expected. The condition of the course was great.

The course is very well maintained but the greens were a bit chewed up in certain areas. Of course players do not fix divots for the most part and that's the main reason for not being in top shape. It took our foursome 5:15 to play despite a 7:36 tee time and keeping up with the group in front of us. That's unusual for that course.

I enjoyed the course due to the fact that it is fairly forgiving and well maintained. Play was a little slow, but we were stuck behind a few less that average players. The marshal did come by and state that he spoke with the group and that was appreciated. The club house and staff were nice and well appointed. Greens and bunkers were very well maintained, and ran true. Ill be back for certain.

We play here all the time and this time wasn't what we expected. The course was really wet and I don't blame them for that, but still could have been maintained better. A lot of the tee boxes were pretty bare and many bunkers had standing water in them.

We'll be back, but it was still a bit disappointing.

our foursome thoroughly enjoyed this course. be advised, playing the tips on this course would be extremely diffcult for average golfer. our group played from the golds and had several approach shots of over 200yds on the par 4's. the 600yd 18th was also challenging, but fun.

it had rained that morning and the course did not drain well, most of traps held water, and tee boxes were very wet (must have a clay base). would definitely play again.

Pace of play was great and course was in decent condition - tee boxes were pretty beat up, but otherwise good shape.

The range is not great. There were very few balls available, and nowhere to get more. Now, on the other hand, there is no charge for range use so that's great.

A good test of golf and a nice track.