Glade Valley Golf Club

TL;DR

Course is in good shape, fun, price is competitive, clubhouse staff is very nice.

Now to the meat and potatoes...

I called to book the teetime and the nice lady that answered called me Honey. :0) She was very friendly and accommodating. We're off to a great start!

Once I arrived at the course, the attendant in the pro shop greeted me and she was also very friendly...maybe "bubbly" is a better descriptor. I'm definitely having a good day, the surroundings are beautiful, the course appears to be in good shape, and the staff so far has been top notch.

I started my round and really enjoyed myself. The course layout is pretty simple, but my game has been struggling as of late, so simple is good.

The pace of play was fine/average, took around 4.25 hours.

I am very impressed with the quality of the fairways, greens, tee boxes and bunkers. Much kudo's to the grounds team!

Here's the one sticking point that I found with Glade Valley, and I didn't catch the fellows name, but whoever was posing as the marshal was not exactly...personable?

What happened? I'm glad you asked.

While I was waiting for the twosome in front of me to get up and down on a par three, the marshal pulls up and the conversation goes something like this...

Me: "Hi Marshal, how you doing today?"

Marshal,: "Just so you know, you cant drive your cart on any of the par three's"

Me: "Thank you, I am certainly aware of that"

Marshal: "Maybe they do that up in Thurmont, but we don't do that around here"

Me: "Yep, I'm not aware of any courses that allow you to drive on par three's"

Marshal: "And if you didn't know, *taps the placard on the cart*, it's written right here"

Me: "I understand completely"

Marshal: *turns around and drives off*

No, have a good round, thanks for coming out...just admonishing me for something I definitely did not do. It was really weird, unprofessional, and offputting. This interaction is responsible for the staff friendliness rating dropping from an easy 5 stars to 3 stars.

My words to Glade Valley management, you may need to have a real conversation with this person and restrict his interaction with your customer base. As for me, I do not have brittle ears and I will likely be back because I thought the course and clubhouse staff were very nice.

I was pleasantly surprised on the quality of the course. It is in excellent condition and plays very well. Green roll great, I really enjoyed it and look forward to coming back again. Nice work course management!

I had read some mixed reviews before booking my t-time, drove over an hour to get there and it was well worth the trip. Loved the course, excellent condition and great greens, rolled well. I had a good scoring day. Definelty will make another drive here in the future and play again.

this was an excellent course and i’ll definitely be back again

I was planning on walking on Sunday morning, but when I was paying for the round I was told the price was the same for walking and riding. Now, I typically wouldn't complain about this, but if you're going to charge the same price to walk or ride, then you should make everyone ride to make sure the pace of play stays the same. Otherwise, you should give folks a price break if they plan on walking. Was disappointed in this, honestly.

The course was good the fact that they declared it ‘cart path only’ with fairways that were far from wet (flat out dry) was completely unacceptable. It took us 5 hours to complete the round.

Glade valley is one of the nicest course's to enjoy a great day of golf

We play here often for several reasons. One it's a great course that is always in excellent condition. Two the cost is perfect and doesn't keep you from only playing a couple times a month. Three, unlike other courses in the area Glade Valley has great drainage after a big storm and doesn't need to close the next day. You can book with confidence even if the weather is iffy.

Have not played at this course for many years due to the green fees and no walker rate. Decided to give it a try with the Golfnow.com twilight rate to see if they have improved the golf course. IMHO , not much change. It is not the value course it used to be.

You have to allow at least 4 1/2 hours to complete a round. There are many slow players that need words of encouragement from the starter - they need to understand some basic common courtesy and allow faster players to play through . This can only happen if the course is better managed.

Cheap golf course with poor pace of play and poorly kept fairways/greens.

Called for t-time; showed up 25 minutes early; paid for golf; loaded clubs into cart and headed for first tee. Donnie zooms up and tells us to return to the club house for a refund and to leave "his" course because we posted a previous 1 star rating. Really, who does this to paying customers. A chance to recover a good rating blown by Donnie. He threatened to call police which I encouraged as we headed to first tee box. Police arrive, tell us it's private property and we have to leave. Contract? (consideration, offer, acceptance). Civil matter. Escorted back to the club house for refund and left. Kudos to both officers who did their best. Course owner stood by and watched the Donnie Drama show. Why not tell me when I called for t time; when I showed up? Why give me a cart and allow me to proceed towards the first tee?

What a shame. Great course; friendly staff; owner who fails to hold her manager accountable.Glad she didn't bring this skill set to Frederick's Cluster Spires.