Westminster National Golf Course

Enjoyed around with my regular golf buddies. We seem to get out to Westminster on average once a month or every six weeks. As usual the course played well. A little bit slow at times with the group and fun of us, but everything else was in good condition. Definitely recommend it.

Enjoyed the round but I lost more balls in that 18 than in the previous 6 months. YMMV, based on your skill level, obviously. Will likely be back!

The greens were in pretty good shape. Fairways and tees were hit or miss. A lot of large thin or bare areas. Recent rains caused a lot of runoff onto the cart paths. The cart paths are not in good shape. The bunkers have no drainage and were essentially large bath tubs full of water.

I only play Westminster National typically once a year. It is a very difficult tract with huge elevation changes, sloping fairways, small crowned greens, blind shots, and not a flat spot anywhere on the course. The course does, though, make you stop and think through each shot to make sure you know where you need to put it and how to use the slopes, hills and mounds to your benefit. This is not a "grip and rip it" course--you will get in trouble! The course was in good condition, other than the bunkers were inconsistent and had stones in them. The other issue for me is there are so many players on this course that are errant--we were in the #1 fairway on our tee shots and had incoming balls from #10 and #9 tees. There were eight people at our tee balls because of all the errant shots off #10 and #9! It was really dangerous and only #10 yelled "fore." I might consider coming up during the week and try again, but I don't think I will do a weekend again. We waited every shot until #16--it was just slow and it was obvious a lot of players were in the junk! The new on-course snack shack and restrooms are very nice, and they have renovated the Pro Shop bathrooms, so quite an improvement. Looks like they are working on updating the facility so that's very nice. It just would have been helpful to have a marshal today to keep things moving. Nice staff and reasonably priced.

I've played here many times over the years. I'm not especially fond of the layout, especially a few really poorly designed holes. But it's convenient and often offers good deals. Yesterday's round surprised me because of all the courses I've played lately, this course had the greenest fairways and tees. It's clear that they do a lot of watering to maintain conditions in what has been a hot, dry spell. The greens were also great. Bunkers were better than average.

I like elevation changes in my courses, but this course at times takes that to an extreme level. They have modified cart paths from several years ago to eliminate the ones that were frankly scary, especially on a wet day. And you must expect to be climbing up and down hills even if you are riding. There is a lot of crisscrossing when driving from one green to the next tee but signs clearly mark the way. This would be a lot of extra walking if you are on foot.

A few years ago they said they had decrowned many of the greens but the reality is that most still run off in all directions adding a level of difficulty.

This will never be my favorite course based on the layout, but they have done as much as they can to make it a positive experience.