Potomac Shores Golf Club

Since the community is still being built, the course has some construction going on which detracts from the scenic value of playing along the Potomac River. If you plan on warming up on the driving range, get there plenty early as the range is a long cart ride from the 1st tee box - easily 5 min. No one told us the greens had recently been aerated so putting was not as true as I'd like. Biggest drawback on my play day was that there was no water on the course during a 75 degree day and we only saw the beverage cart twice during the entire round of 5 hours.

It's a beautiful course and the staff there is great. The course layout is challenging and it helps if you have local knowledge as trouble lurks on some holes if you hit your drive too far. The only negative is that the turn does not go by the clubhouse so grabbing food at the turn is not an option. Besides that, awesome course.

Th

I realize that it's early spring, but the course looked more like a construction site than the photos on the web site. The site indicated that aeration took place in late February, but the course looked more like the aeration took place a week ago. The areas around the greens are in various states of repair also.

i appreciate the course layout, but there are unmber of blind tee shots. Finally, to get to the practice range, you are directed to drive past holes one and two. The directions for returning from the range (for those who listened to directions) take you up a sidewalk and down the road and into the parking area of the club. While not ideal, wouldn't it be better to have people take that route both ways, avoiding the disruption of players on holes one and two?

I had waited a long time to play this popular course. It was $50 on Tuesday morning, which I thought was reasonable. I failed to read the fine print about the aeration that was being done. The entire course had huge holes including the fairways! The greens and fairways had lots of sand. The course should not have been open. I played as a single because I was paired with a twosome and one of them arrived late. I was being patient but when he got there he needed to hit some balls and said "just let him go by himself". So based on this attitude from the snobby member I went out alone, to a new course, exactly what I told the starter I didn't want to do. The layout was challenging but I would never go back, not worth the money, and the lack of explanation regarding the conditions is just plain wrong.

Definitely on par with Laurel Hills in Lorton or even Raspberry Falls minus the staff expertise. The course offers amazing elevation changes and vistas. However, the Potomac River is not easily seen belying the course name. Aeration took place recently but was happy to accept a coupon for a discounted round later in Spring as recompense. A must play for the serious Capitol Region public course golfer.

This was my third time playing Po Sho. Conditions are excellent thanks to an attentive grounds crew. It is a challenging golf course, but not as brutal as the previous Jack Nicklaus designed courses.

I pulled up to the curb, opened my trunk, and an attendant snatched up my clubs and loaded them on a cart. Check-in was fast and efficient. The driving range was in good condition, and the range balls are included in the greens fee.

It was a busy day, the parking lot was full. We didn't have to slow down for a group in front of us, or have a group on our heels. It was as if we had the golf course to ourselves.

The food in the grill room is a significant step up from the typical golf cafe, and the food prices were reasonable.

Great layout. It's a long and tough course, but the holes are picture perfect and it was in great shape for late December. Can't wait to play it again.

Course was in good shape for late fall. Greens were very fast. My only complaint was the driving range is too far from the clubhouse

This is a neighborhood course with little housing presence, long, quite a tough course in spots, long, lots of verticality and very-deep rough, long, ball-eating rough near the greens. The greens are decent speed and slope, nothing outrageous, but you really have to be careful with the rough and the drop-offs on the sides of the fairway and behind the green. It's quite a meandering course, a good ride through the woods. But I don't think that you'll be disappointed by the layout. It is very, very good for a neighborhood course and has a clubhouse to match. It may not be the absolute best public neighborhood course in the DC area, but it's right up there.

The main thing about it is that it looks like a normal-sized course with normal proportions but it plays very big with lots and lots of verticality, carries and waste.

By the way, no real views of the Potomac :)

the only thing that really disappointed me about this course was the number of drunk guys sitting on the deck of the clubhouse by the 18th green

The course is very well kept with just a couple of traps that are in poor condition. Rained the day before and they were full of water. First time playing it was a true adventure. There are several holes with blind tee shots that need exact length and/or position that you don't know until it's too late. There are several areas of high weeds that are hidden from view and will eat you ball. Many holes are quite breath taking and you kind off loose you concentration. Your main objective has to be hitting the fairway because the ruff is about a 2 club extra if you can even get it in the air.

This course was recommended to me and more than met expectations. Although challenging it is fair. It rewards good shots and penalizes bad ones. Playing it again with the knowledge I gained from playing it for the first time will increase the enjoyment. The staff was exceptional. I highly recommend Potomac Shores.

The course was very challenging. The layout was great "of course it is Jack's design." Plenty of room on the fairways to hit driver and you get a lot of forgiveness but the approach shots on the other hand well lets just saw unless you are shooting darts at the flag. I hope you have a good short game and can get up and down 75 percent of the time. I had a great time course was in awesome shape.

If your game isn't up to par, this course will eat you alive. However, this course has a great layout and great conditions. You can't walk the course because the holes are spread out quite a bit. I'll be back to this course whenever I get a round in.

Best course ever played in NOVA. First class facility. Played on a Thursday for $69.00. Well worth the money. Staff and facilities are outstanding. Overall course in great shape given the heat of this summer. Challenging, rolling fairways and greens, typical Jack Nicklaus design. Most greens in great condition, some fringe areas recently re-sodded but that's ok, course is been open for only 2 years and still growing in.Practice balls included in fees. Practice area is a distance from the clubhouse and first tee.

Some holes are long distances from others and require a cart, cannot walk.

Check the course layout on line before you play, many blind shots and no hole by hole layout provided. More signs should be added from greens to next tee.

Will be back again, highly recommend.

Heard much (good and indifferent) stuff about this course and finally got to experience it myself. WOW! What an awesome and challenging course. Jack Nicklaus did a fabulous job in routing 18 holes on this hilly terrain. The bentgrass greens were in excellent condition, playing fast and true. The only "strange" thing about this course is that the driving range is two holes away from the clubhouse and it takes a few miniutes to get there. My tip is to be well prepared and warm up, take an extra half an hour to ready yourself for the challenges. Can't wait to return. The staff is warm, professional and helpful. The Clubhouse is something to be proud of (for a public course). Troon Golf is to be commended to support this high level of golfing experience. Can't wait to get back to VA to enjoy an encore!

Kurt, Columbia, SC

Is this course nice? Yes - $110 nice? Not even close. Look, it's a great course but for me, an avid 3+ times a week golfer, I've seen my share of nice golf courses relative to price and this course is way over priced. Do what my group did and play during the week for $69.

Overall: We played from the Gold tees and shot well. Course plays shorter than the scorecard of 6,500 from gold. Fairways are great, open where it needs to be and bunkered nicely, however my playing partner found himself in several unraked bunkers leaving him with mounds of sand to hit out of. The course layout is weird. It's like they designed it so they can build as many houses on it as possible - every hole seems to take you a couple of minutes in a golf cart.

Greens: Rolled fairly true but we're pretty slow for a Nicklaus course. Divots were very much present during our round. Since it was a Tuesday we were 2 of about 25 players out there so I'm not sure why the greens had not been repaired by the greens keeper. The back 9 had a bunch of repair going on (did not affect play) but still was a bit of an eye sore. Again, I feel for a $110, greens should roll true and should have a good pace, this course did not.

Fairways: Highlight of the corse for me. Some repair going on but again, didn't affect play. Grass was a little sticky so we weren't getting much roll with our drives but again, course plays shorter (in my option).

This was my third time playing here. I had a family member in town and decided I'd take him to a "premium" public track here in Northern Virginia. I see the previous two reviews that played on 8/20 and I can't agree more. We've had some thunderstorms, but this course was beyond soggy - multiple balls plugged in the fairway and around greens... They may we over watering to avoid losing some of the holes, but it was way too wet for a mid summer round with temps in the high 80's. Traps were unraked and a few were washed out from storms we had days ago... Where is the maintenance? Multiple aprons around the greens were totally ripped out and just sand. Multiple holes with areas of new sod around the greens and, overall, the greens were not as true or as fast as they have been. It's a true test and a real challenge but for $109, it should be in MUCH better shape. Shame on the staff and superintendent for letting this course fall apart like it is. If your plans are to get it back to a $109 course, charge $70 until it's back in $109 condition.

For $109, I would expect a course in much better condition. There were a number of fairways that had diseased turf, a few of the greens where they were replacing the grass on the green and around the green, and a number of bunkers that had some erosion.

I think they should have offered a discount due to the condition of the course, but they were not.

I would highly recommend you not playing unless they reduce the rate to $50-60 or less.

Played Potomac Shores right after it opened a couple years ago, and it was okay. Played today, and geez, have things gone downhill. For a place with greens fees around $100, I'd expect the course to be in much better shape. You can't walk this course, and half the holes are marked "cart path only" for one reason or another. I think they have drainage problems -- the place was really soggy and we haven't had a ton of rain recently. Lots of dead spots on the fairways, lots of greens with sh1tty turf patches and way too many blind tee shots. If you don't know this course already, forget it -- you'll just be frustrated because figuring out where the green is from the tee box is almost as hard as finding the clubhouse from Route 1. Yardage markers were almost invisible. Little stakes with a patch of white or red (no 200 yard markers that I could see). And like many courses in Virginia, they have huge fans blowing on the greens because there's no airflow when you don;t cut down a significant number of the trees around the greens -- lose the fans, get some chainsaws, and clear the place out. Jack might've been a great golfer, but his course design is so-so. Not impressed by Potomac Shores.