Potomac Shores Golf Club

I know the aeration of greens when I booked the tee time. But it was not just the aeration. The length of the grass was long.. about a half inch long. 14 to 15 greens were damaged and you could see bare-dirt greens. It was so sad that the club totally ruined the great golf course.

The greens are not playable due to aeration, mold, disease . It’s a shame that such a nice layout is in terrible condition. Won’t play here again this year.

Potomac Shores golf club used to be an amazing place to play. It has a beautiful setting and course layout. I have played this course multiple times even though it is very far away and pretty expensive. I had always thought it was worth it. I could not have been more disappointed yesterday while playing the course. The course was in her rough shape. Several holes seemed like we were hitting into a sand trap, not the green. Everything was over grown and trash cans were not even emptied. Every trash can was overflowing. On the course, there was not one ball washer so needed to use our towels and ice water to clean our golf balls.

I sure hope they can figure something out to get back being a nice course.

Playing Potomac Shores GC had been on my to-do list for years and finally an opportunity to make the drive from Richmond presented itself this week. While the conditions of the course weren’t what I hoped for, the other aspects of my first experience will ensure I make the trip back up here again soon.

I had heard so many positive things regarding this course and after reading reviews posted just a few weeks prior hailing the playing conditions, I felt confident the $49 twilight fee would be a no-brainer. I arrived at the course with high hopes but it soon became clear how quickly things can change.

The course has clearly been struggling with a bad batch of weather the past several weeks, but I’ll first focus on the areas that were in the best shape. The course spent a lot of time and money on renovating the bunkers and changing the fairways to Bermuda. These improvements were noticeable, the bunkers I found to be the best aspect of the course, very well done and aesthetically pleasing. I found myself in a few of them but didn’t find them overly penal.

The fairways had recently been punched but aside from that they generally were in good shape. There were signs of heavy traffic but I expect that with just about every NoVa public course. It seemed that the Bermuda grass was handling the hot, wet conditions far better than the bentgrass rough and greens.

Now for the bad: nearly every green and green surround/apron had a significant portion that appeared to somehow be simultaneously burnt and rotten with bare, blackened, and soggy patches that made chipping and putting unpredictable and overall was a bit of an eye-sore.

The rough was perhaps the bigger issue from a playing standpoint. Around the greens much of the rough was clumpy and uneven. There were also many spots of rough so bare and dry that they had put down landscape netting. For a course that typically charges $70-100, I do expect better turf conditions but, again, I know they can only do so much when hit with bouts of extreme weather.

There are some courses where conditions and design go hand-in-hand to frame your opinion of the course and this is certainly one of them. With the degraded conditions, I wasn’t able to truly appreciate the design of the course. There were several creatively constructed holes with visual illusions that try to play tricks with you. I actually found that I played better by trying to ignore these tricks and play each hole straightforward but some dumb luck kept me from making a mess of things on a couple holes.

My one complaint on the layout is not unique to this course: there a lot of driving between holes, and gives the perception that the course was almost an afterthought to the design of the Potomac Shores community.

But enough with the negativity, I can’t say enough nice things about the staff here. The cart attendants were delightful and friendly as was the gentleman in the pro shop who drove around as a marshal during my round to check on things (a rarity at 7pm on a weekday at most courses).

WORTH NOTING: After posting some comments about the course conditions on social media, a member of the staff contacted me to address my concerns and I am always grateful when the course reaches out to show they care. I am looking forward to returning here when conditions improve but for right now, my recommendation of this course comes with an asterisk to wait until conditions improve before paying the full rack rate if value is a priority for you.

Potomac Shores is a great course with incredibly well kept fairways and fast greens. It is a challenging layout but it’s a lot of fun!

Tee box was in excellent condition after the renovation the course was in great shape. Challenging course requires shot shaping. Overall great course for advance golfer.

The course was in amazing condition. The staff is very friendly. The menu was unique and the food and cocktails were delicious! Can’t wait to come back! Jon B.

The layout of the course was demanding in club choices due to elevation changes. Blind shots required advance knowledge on the layout of the hold being played. The pictorial layout card was beneficial and you just needed to trust the yardages provided. Distances from green to tees was pleasant through the hills and dales travelled - definitely not a walking course!

Due to a deluge after hitting our last shot of the day off the #18 tee, my playing partner and I hurriedly gathered our gear to the care. Unbeknownst to me I forgot my cell phone in the cart compartment.

Travelling during the torrential rainstorm my playing partner received a text from my wife advising that Todd from the course called to advise of my found phone and that he would be available at least another hour. Using my partners phone I left a v-mail that I would retrieved the phone the next day.

I arrived at the course the following day and the phone was readily available to me. Mahalo Nui for the hospitality and demonstration of the meaning of Aloha!

My Sunday morning round took just over 5 hours, and the ranger was no where to be found. We eventually called the pro shop, and the attendant, after venturing out onto the course, explained that there were a few slow groups ahead. That is, frankly, not good enough. We already knew that. The layout of this place already means the round is going to take a long time. It was also a crowded day. Those factors should mandate that the staff stay on top of pace of play and ask slow groups to speed up or skip a hole. Apparently, this is a common issue at Potomac Shores. The staff needs to do better or people will stop playing this course, especially at the premium prices typically charged.

Course will be stellar once complete. Looks like they have a ways to go.

Steps to T boxes, additional water sources on the course, more frequent visits from the cart person, construction debris still scattered around the course, club house still under construction. Will be awesome upon completion

I will preface this review by saying this used to be one of my favorite public tracks in the DMV, almost on Whiskey Creek level. However Potomac Shores is in a complete state of disarray right now. Heavy machinery on almost every hole on the back nine, the majority of fairway bunkers are ground under repair, multiple large “ground under repair” areas throughout the fairways and rough, and even the “repaired” areas around greens have significant sod seams resulting in some very tricky lies. IMO they shouldn’t even have golfers on this course right now. I really liked Potomac Shores the first few times I played there, but it’s looking like they need another 2-3 months before I will be giving them another $60-90. Hope you can get it fixed this season...

I was very lucky to be the first public round played at this course when it opened. Playing a perfect course without any divots or pitch marks in the greens is such a cool experience that you cant get other than opening day. This is a course I recommend to everyone

Third time playing this course. The first two times, I said I would never play there again. Now I am saying it for a third and final. All three, and one was during the week, were almost 5 1/2 hours!!!!!! I can deal with the free drop from bunkers because of redoing, the redoing of the fairways, the marshal driving the food cart because the employee didn’t show up, people wearing jeans and sweatpants, all good, it ain’t the 60s...... but over 5 hours and we were around the 8th tee time. All three, I was referred to the back of the scorecard where it says average time is 4 hours 35 min. In a time where golf courses are failing and they keep talking about pace of play, Troon should be ashamed of what they are doing to one of Jack’s designs. And here is the shame of it, the layout is great. It’s challenging and rewarding and fun to play. But after almost 3 hours for 9 holes, the course loses all character.

So, when you get that hall pass from your significant other and you want it to be a long one.....this is your place. Just be warned, it will be the longest of your life!

This course used to the one of the best, but now it is one of the worst. Not a single bunker was playable, greens were not maintained. We could not take cart on the course. I think management is using Jack Nicklaus name to charge more. Not playing here again.

Sprawling layout that is not walkable.

Nicklaus Signature, so you know it is a strong layout but something is way off given the condition of the course.

The bunkers are washed out and staff explained they will not be fixing them until they "fix them" in the offseason.

Greens are not healthy at all and not what you would expect given the tier 1/tier 2 cost for this area.

Not one to review but shocked the actual condition of this course is not on this site

Look at the slope ratings; they don’t lie.

Unfortunately, the course was not in great shape, but it’s been a very difficult growing season. Due to over 40” of rain this summer, the course was quite wet after a rainstorm two days before we played. Also, all bunkers had either standing water or a mud film over the sand surface; a lot of erosion of sand was noted. Forgivable bc of the recent rain and excessive rain over the summer.

I noted that the two fairway bunkers at the bend in fairway 18 look like the superintendent is allowing grass to take over.

The greens were great! Only a couple of bare spots. True roll, good speed, lots of undulations.

We play this course once every other year.