Potomac Shores Golf Club

Course layout is great with interesting holes throughout. Clubhouse is great and everyone we meet was super friendly.

and its temporary but condition wasnt great. they just reopened fairways after replacing during summer and we were told they beginning a bunker refurbishment next week (very much needed and you will find sand during a round) and greens has some pace but clearly members didnt like repairing pitch marks.

Would recommend and we will be back but hope the condition of course would be better

The experience of golfing at Potomac Shores is excellent. Clubhouse is beautiful, staff is friendly and helpful, and the practice area is excellent. If these are the things you care about while golfing, you will not be disappointed.

The course itself is a mixed bag. There are certain holes that are interesting. Nicklaus uses angles and hazards to provide a strategically interesting test. I particularly liked the par 5 10th hole, which provides multiple routes to approach the hole location.

However, this is not a golf course. These are 18 individual holes on the same property, with nothing connecting them While this is common on modern courses, it leads to a painful experience, especially in terms of pace of play and overall enjoyment.

Conditions were pretty good, although the new bermuda fairways are still maturing, and were akin to playing from the second cut of rough.

An unwalkable course like this will never be my cup of tee, but the individual holes are good enough to justify the relatively high cost to play.

Before I talk about the course I would like to acknowledge the”front of the house”. The bag drop crew , and pro shop staff were wonderful. They thanked us for choosing Potomac Shores and made sure that we were comfortable with the amenities. Practice range was excellent and my wife and I teed off on time. In short, the course is spectacular! The condition of the course for early May was superb. We live in South Carolina and there are only a few courses along the Grand Strand that compare favorably to this course. During our round, we met one of the course pro’s who couldn’t have been friendlier . He knew about our home course because his parents live in Conway SC. . What a great ambassador for the golf course! If you are in the area, don’t miss the chance to play this course.

Played Potomac Shores on back to back days in above average winds. For early spring the course is in good not great shape. I could not give the course an Excellent rating like so many others due to the condition of the sand traps and having more than a handful of greens that have some turf issues. Really enjoyed playing off Bent grass fairways. Disappointed to hear that they will be replacing the Bent with Bermuda this summer but totally understand why they are doing this. I really enjoyed the challenging elevation changes throughout the course. Three of the Par 3 holes are some of the more challenging holes on the course. The Par 5 holes are set up to get some strokes back if you give up a few on the Par 3's I mentioned. Truly a course that you can score low on if you pick the appropriate club off the tee. Now they know the sand trap issues they have as they mentioned it when I said something at the end of the round. There is sand so be thankful of that but some of the traps do not drain well and ALL the traps need the be filtered of the rocks present in them. Some of the rocks were fist sized. For the price that should not be the case. As for the turf issues on some of the greens. Clearly the mowers get too close on some of the undulation in the greens. Along with that many of the edges near the first cut were showing signs of stress. Just not something you expect to see for the price nor for a Nicklaus Signature course. They have brand new carts so no issues there. The practice facility is nice. Grass on the driving range with a good size chipping and putting area. The putting green next to the clubhouse is attached to the 18th green which was pretty cool to see. Clubhouse is beautiful with fully stocked pro shop, great locker rooms and the restaurant has some tasty food. The staff is phenomenal. Form the bag drop to check in to the maintenance staff back to the bag drop again everyone was extremely friendly, professional and very helpful.

My spring game was not ready for this challenging track. Conditions were good weather was great, my putter just didn’t show up. Always a great test of all your shots from tee to green.

last day for winter rates so $65 felt like a real bargain. weekend rates normally a bit steep, but this course goes on the medal stand for best public tracks in the dc area

Love Potomac Shores. Have played it 6 times in all seasons and love the layout and condition. Last played Feb 2018 and greens/fairways were very reasonable for mid winter. I've played most the good DMV courses and this course is my favorite with Laurel Hill and Lansdowne. Challenging but fair

we went out on a wet sunday and got to the 12th hole where there was no marshal on the course as well as no drink cart. without the marshal, slow players backed up 4 holes and were not asked to move along. i will not go back

First time to Potomac Shores today and I was blown away.

Course: Conditions are gorgeous, even though it's peak winter time. It's incredibly challenging with rolling greens and tough pin positions so if you're a decent golfer, you'll have your work cut out for you.

Views: Gorgeous. It's Raspberry Falls/Blue Ridge Shadows level.

Service: A++ - great people.

I will be back despite living 50 mins north in DC.

This course is in fantastic shape, from tee to green. Challenging layout but the sights and course conditions are second to none!

Best public course in northern VA. Challenging and very much a thinkers course. If you play a fade like Jack, this fits your game. Greens are very hard. So much fun to play. Will definitely go back in the summer.

As for the course itself, this is a classic Nicklaus course - lots of variety, requires some thinking and shotmaking, and it has undulating greens. The course is carved out of very hilly, wooded terrain near the Potomac River south of DC. I played it in mid-November on a day when it was cloudy and in the 50s, with enough wind that you had to factor it in. The bent grass greens were nice, but the fairways were also bent. They were beautiful, but you have to be on your game with irons because the ball will not sit up like it will on bermuda, so you have to clip it clean. I loved the course, but had but one complaint - my Bushnell GPS NeoWatch did not pick up the course, nor could the GolfNow GPS on my smartphone. I am hoping they will get the course in their systems, because I had a hard time with some yardages. There are a number of carries across ravines, and that can throw off your distance perception, so the watch would have been handy. Bring your Bushnell range finder, I guess.

Now, for the best part - I have never had as good service from the pro (I believe his name was Tim Taylor) as I had there. He asked if I had ever played there, and when I said no, he proceeded to give me a description of a number of the tricky holes. He also explained that the 9th doesn't bring you back to the clubhouse and apologized that the grill wasn't operating so I couldn't grab some food to take out with me. I had brought snacks but made sure there was water on the course. There wasn't, so he ran in and got a bottle of water for me. After my round, I was in the parking lot putting away my clubs, and he was out there helping someone else. He called across the lot to me by name, to see how I liked the course. Besides the already excellent service, the fact that he had committed my name to memory from 4 hours earlier was extremely impressive. I told him I would be back and will bring some buddies with me.

This is the best layout in NoVa, by far. It has everything and you'll need a high level of execution on each shot. From blind tee shots, to narrow landing zones and slick greens, Potomac Shores has it all. I play a lot of golf and this course is at the top of my list. Staff is friendly and helpful too.

Condition-wise, i would say A-. Only a few bare spots in Fairways 8,9 and 14 which should grow in this Fall. Also need a few more stations to refill sand bottles. Greens are A++, super fast and true. Best in the area.

Its worth the drive down 95, i look forward to playing there each and every time

Great layout and challenging course. Several blind shots off the tee which made it interesting the first time playing this course. Had a great online price (more than 33% discount) that I booked couple hrs before I played and included practice facility and cart. Staff was very pleasant and helpful. I was playing as a single on weekday and play was about 3 1/2 hrs and that was after joining another single that was ahead of me.

Would play this course again since I now know the layout.

My wife and I took a Friday afternoon off and decided to play this course for the first time. The cost of it during regular weekdays and weekends gives the impression that it is an amazing layout, and in great condition. I will say the course is clearly a Nicklaus designed layout with room for tee shots and is definitely a second shot course. My issue were the course conditions. There are 30 golf courses in the area in better condition than Potomac Shores, that you can play for $60 and under... on weekends. The greens are in average condition and run at average speed. There are large areas where the fairways are bare or in distress. The reason given was a problem with being watered...but honestly, it looked more like over-watering than under-watering. Regardless, the conditions don't match the cost. The rough clearly hasn't matured yet, and is very spotty. Nice layout, but I'd wait to play it again until the conditions improve and it matures.

Right now, it's a $60 per round track by comparison for the area.

Lots of fairway undulations and blind flags. Definitely don't expect to just walk up to the tee box and hit towards what you see. A short hole study is recommended but once you get it there's nothing else like it in Northern Virginia.

Staff definitely makes sure that you're taken care of.

Food is great, clubhouse in nice conditions, and the driving range is on real grass, not pads.

Will play again soon.

I’ll preface this review by pointing out this was the first time I had played with accompanying media and, despite my protestations that it shouldn’t matter who you play with, it was an interesting experience because of that. He was there reviewing the course as well, my story was in addition to that, so I wasn’t the complete focus like later rounds, but still, it was something different and probably effected my overall experience moreso than my play.

We played the relatively forward silver tees which were well under 6000 yards and rated at 68.9 which was the lowest course rating of the 51 rounds I played on this trip. None of this contributed to a good score however, and I barely managed to stay below the mason Dixon line of 90 (carding a dog-fight-grind of an 89).

While I didn’t have many shots to write home about my best shot of the trip was on the par four 12th; a 188 yard 7 iron through a tiny gap in the trees onto the green. Which brings me to my first point about Potomac shores, there is no shortage of opportunities to make a phenomenal shot. Many holes offer risk/reward options and very often a so-so shot can be made up with a fantastic one. Having said that, it is worth noting that attempting that fantastic make-up shot can be particularly damaging to your score here, as there are a lot of areas where you simply aren’t getting your ball (or much distance) back if you fail to make the shot and a blow-up hole can quickly ensue.

Potomac Shores is a shot makers dream, and I’d love to play again (in fact I plan to play again) when I’m actually striking the ball well. I believe there is a real opportunity to post a low score here. The greens are generally well protected; both by approach angles as well as bunkering and elevation change.

The signature par five 10th hole is a beauty and a Nicklaus classic with an island of trees and long grasses splitting the fairway on your downhill approach shot. Placing your tee shot well is critical to having a reasonable second shot and setting up your approach. On a positive note, this hole is as scenic as it is challenging and, visually, you will love it the whole way. I was there in the spring, I can’t imagine how pretty it is in the fall.

Arguably my favorite part of Potomac Shores is that it is a trail of holes (one hole simply leads to the next) that progresses in a giant loop. There are almost no holes side by side, and even the few that are close don’t create a presence that is felt at all. I felt alone on the course all day. There are some long jaunts between holes and, as such, the course requires players to ride in a cart. As much as I prefer to walk, this is a good decision as it would simply take too long for groups to walk from one hole to the next in certain places and really effect pace of play.

Another unique feature is that the 18th and practice greens are on the same putting surface. From the 320 yard silver tees I played, your drive will probably get you close enough that you won’t feel intimidated by people warming up on the green you are hitting into. However, if I had been faced with a longer approach shot (e.g. from the 400+ yard back tees) this may have given me a moment of pause. For me, hitting a little wedge shot from about 85 yards, it was fun.

I found the staff very friendly and helpful all around, the only thing that I thought could really be improved was signage on the course. I picked up a yardage book in the clubhouse and it helped a bit; however, without it I think the decision on which way to drive after the first hole would have been a coin flip at best. Overall I thought this was a very nice course that played a little tougher than its rating mostly because the cost of an error is a little steep for a 68.9 (although, to be fair, this is probably adequately represented in the slope of 132).

I’d recommend this course to anyone in the area and intend to visit again when I get the chance.