Ranking the Golf Courses I Reviewed In 2019

It's officially 2020, and what better way to wean off that New Year's hangover than with a big round-up of all the golf courses I reviewed in 2019!

I'll say this about 2019, the golf was occasionally awful, but at least the weather was mildly cooperative. Actually, for a little while in the fall it was downright dry. So it was never a struggle to get a year's worth of review material in, which was very nice. I was also able to get quite a variety of environments this time around, ranging from the marshes of southern Maryland to the boreal forests of the Adirondacks. Anyway, let's get to the list!

13. Cumberland Golf Club

This is about as dynamic as Cumberland gets.

I called it all the way back when I reviewed the course back in January. It would be tough for a course to be worse than Cumberland, and nothing else I played was up to the challenge. Not even close. It's flat, it's boring, and it's not worth your time or money.

The eighteenth is the one mildly interesting hole at Cumberland. It isn't worth the effort.

Find my review of Cumberland here and here.

12. The Woods - Mountain View

One of the more intimidating tee shots you'll ever face.

Sometimes a piece of land just isn't suited for golf. There is such a thing as too rugged, and I think the Mountain View course at the Woods crosses it. The course is completely unwalkable, holes are separated from each other by what often seems like miles, and to make matters worse, houses line almost every hole. The other things I could forgive, but when I play a golf course in the middle of nowhere, I want it to feel like it's in the middle of nowhere. Instead, it just felt like a mediocre housing course.

One of the few pictures I took where there were no houses in frame.

Find my review of the Woods here and here.

11. Range End

The fourth at Range End, quite possibly my least favorite hole of all time.

We go from ridiculously mountainous to nearly dead flat. Range End isn't a bad course, per se, but it is pretty boring. It's packed into a small property, so that means numerous parallel holes, and to top it off, the vast majority of the land is pancake flat. A talented architect could create some interest with cleverly placed bunkers or subtle earthwork, but Range End possesses neither of these attributes. This is about as generic as golf gets.

The twelfth at Range End, the one hole on the course with significant elevation change.

Find my review of Range End here and here.

10. Stamford Valley

The seventh hole is the best one at Stamford Valley.

The only 9 hole course I reviewed in 2019, Stamford Valley has some excellent scenery and a generally interesting set of greens going for it. The stretch from 6 to 8 is honestly pretty compelling golf. The rest of the course is fairly lackluster, if occasionally quirky. And $16 for 9 holes is a bit steep. It's better than most of the other 9 hole courses I've played, but I wouldn't take it over too many 18 hole courses.

There's quite a lot to take in on the eighth tee.

Find my review of Stamford Valley here.

9. Hickory Heights

The fifth green at Hickory Heights.

My experience at Hickory Heights can be summed up in two words: unexpected rain. More than a year on and I'm still annoyed about that. Anyway, the golf course is pretty basic, but it traverses some rolling terrain, which provides some reasonable interest. It's not quite as quirky as Westminster National, but it's not bad.

The sixteenth hole.

Find my review of Hickory Heights here and here.

8. Brigantine Golf Links

The third hole at Brigantine.

This definitely isn't a bad golf course, but it's completely flat and literally every hole is surrounded by houses. As a result, things start to look a little repetitive, especially in April when all the grass is brown. That said, there's some real strategic interest here despite the weaknesses, and the sixteenth is definitely on the short list for most entertaining green I've ever seen. It's worth seeing Brigantine just for that.

The ninth green, overlooking the ocean. Also note the tiny flags.

Have fun if you end up above the hole.

Find my review of Brigantine here and here.

7. Fore Sisters

The third hole at Fore Sisters. Sometimes the round feels more like a hike than golf.

The ninth hole.

Remember what I said about the Woods? How a golf course in the middle of nowhere should feel like it? Well, Fore Sisters does exactly that. It feels wild. There are no houses in view, just forest and mountains. The course is rugged, but it's not completely unwalkable (I wouldn't recommend it, but you can do it). Is it the most compelling course in the world? No, but the setting alone elevates it, and there's some definite quirk around. Plus how many courses have 700 yard holes?

Now that's a hole.

Looking back down the fourteenth. Yes, the 700 yard hole is uphill.

The sixteenth hole.

Find my review of Fore Sisters here and here.

6. Kingsbury National Golf Club

One of Kingsbury National's unique features is a double green, occupied by the first and eighth holes.

The approach on the ninth.

Kingsbury National is a perfectly nice golf course. A few decent holes,  a few parallel holes, nothing spectacular but nothing bad. A typical modern golf course, I'd call it. However, Kingsbury National has an ace in the hole. I'm not sure if it always plays so firm and fast, but it did when I was there, and that made it way more fun than it had any right too be. In softer conditions, this may drop a spot or two.

Golden hour can make any hole look great.

Find my review of Kingsbury National here and here.

5. Swan Point

The second at Swan Point is a rude awakening, but a good-looking one.

The Potomac River behind the sixth green.

Swan Point is not the sort of golf course I'd expect to enjoy. Lots of trees, lots of water, not particularly wide, it sounds pretty awful, to be honest. And yet, I did enjoy playing Swan Point. It's a beautiful spot, and there are some fun holes on the back nine. They're a little too tough for the beginner, I think, but as a sort of not completely terrible golfer, I appreciate the challenge now and again. The thrill of blasting a drive over the marshes to an unseen fairway is something I won't soon forget. Just bring a few extra golf balls.

The tenth hole, with the eleventh in the background.

Trouble surrounds the eleventh green.

The thirteenth concludes quite a scenic three-hole stretch.

Find my review of Swan Point here and here.

4. Glenn Dale Golf Club

The tough approach to the second.

The punchbowl-like sixth green.

The ninth hole requires two mighty blows.

Ah, Glenn Dale, a golf course gone too soon. That's right, we've got a dead course on the list, so unlike the other courses on this list, you'll just have to take my word that this course was pretty fun. Not earth shattering, but there were 18 solid holes with a decent set of greens, and it was a nice little slice of nature in suburban Washington, D.C that you could play for a very reasonable price. The golf world needs more Glenn Dales, not fewer.

The fifteenth hole.

The uphill approach to the last green.

Find my review of Glenn Dale here and here.

3. Orchard Creek Golf Club

Heading down to the first green.

The eighth green, sitting over Bozen Kill

The weather may have been disgustingly hot and I may have blown 7 shots in 4 holes to my brother who was suffering a fair amount of heat exhaustion, but that didn't stop me from appreciating a wonderfully minimalist modern golf course. There was plenty of strategy around, and playing corridors were almost always very wide open. The greens were fun, and the course was very walkable, not to mention affordable. Just bring lots of water with you if it's hot.

The fourteenth is only 270 yards, but it's got many possibilities.

The fifteenth is a 250 yard brute.

Find my review of Orchard Creek here and here.

2. Lake Placid Club - Links

The second hole at Lake Placid, with some impressive mountains in the background.

The sixth green, long, undulating, and dangerous.

The Links course at Lake Placid is, of course, not a real links. It wasn't even particularly firm and fast. But what it does have is a resolutely old-school style. Granted, I haven't seen a whole lot of golf courses (just shy of 100), but I have never seen bunkering like the Links course had. Long, thin ribbons of sand, stretching for dozens and dozens of yards. The course has apparently undergone a recent restoration, and I would just like to commend whoever was responsible for actually restoring the features of the course to the way they would have looked when Lake Placid was built over a century ago. The Links is a tough course, long and often punishing. But it's never overly penal, if you're careful, you can work your way around just fine. Plus there's the little matter of the scenery. The pictures don't do it justice.

The eleventh hole.

It's tough to beat Lake Placid on a July evening.

Find my review of Lake Placid here and here.

1. Copake Country Club

The second green at Copake presents quite a challenge.

I thought the difference between Shennecossett and Keney Park last year was small. Both are excellent golf courses, but I was always a bigger fan of Shennecossett. This year, the difference between Lake Placid and Copake was so small that I initially favored Lake Placid over Copake. Lake Placid is such a beautiful course, of course it was best. How could it not be?

The sixth, one of three sub-300 yard par 4s at Copake.

This isn't just a beauty contest though, and while Lake Placid has plenty of style and substance to go with the scenery, I think Copake is a more compelling golf course. The greens at Lake Placid were often not the most interesting in the world, while Copake presented quite possibly the most compelling set of greens I've ever played. Copake is not a course that can be bludgeoned into submission, it's all about the second shot and the short game there. As such, it varies immensely from Lake Placid, which can be a bit of a brute tee to green.

The eleventh green.

The thirteenth hole, down in a valley.

Let's put it like this: If you gave me one round and a choice between Lake Placid and Copake, I'd go with Lake Placid. But if you gave me ten rounds, I'd probably split it seven/three in favor of Copake. Lake Placid is an excellent getaway course with plenty of charm, but Copake, in my opinion, is just more fun. I would rather play Copake every day than Lake Placid, and that's why I'm putting it at the top for 2019.

It may not be the Adirondacks, but Lake Copake isn't a bad substitute.

Find my review of Copake here and here.

Well, that's 2019 done and dusted. It's been an adventure. I've got a backlog of courses all the way to April this time around, so once again, expect reviews once a month in 2020. Stay tuned!

Glenn Dale Golf Club Has Closed

And with an obituary in the Washington Post too. 

The ninth hole at Glenn Dale.

I've been sort of keeping an eye on the Glenn Dale situation ever since I found out the course was closing while in the process of writing my review for it (see here and here). I wanted to know why such a fun little golf course was closing, and now I have my answer. The place just wasn't making money, losing $1 million in the past 5 years. With that kind of losses, it's no surprise the sell-off came. And of course, it's going to be replaced with boring, bland suburban houses. 

In the grand scheme of things, Glenn Dale is not a huge loss. It was a neat little course, but nothing that would bring in golfers from hundreds of miles away. But it also wasn't one of the many soulless country-clubs-for-a-day that got built in the 90s and early 2000s that have since gone bust. It had a history. It meant something to the people who played it. There was a real Glenn Dale community, and it's unfortunate that things are coming to an end. 

Review: Glenn Dale Golf Club (Part 2)

It's time for the back nine at Glenn Dale, go here if you haven't seen the front.

The tenth hole is a par 4 of reasonable length (420 yards) that plays hard against a property line left of the hole. The trees encroach quite a bit on the tee shot and honestly could use a bit of a trim. The left fairway bunker is hardly a concern because it's tough to get a drive in that position. The drive is down the hill, and the second shot goes back up to an elevated green with bunkers front left and front right. Shots that don't get far enough on the green will almost certainly roll back down a ways.

The tenth hole. Definitely don't want to go left on the tee shot.

The tenth green.

The eleventh hole is a short par 4, only barely more than 300 yards. The hole plunges downhill and doglegs around a group of trees. The green is definitely reachable, though you'd have to be pretty brave to try carrying those trees. Experience helps, as first-time players, my brother and I had no idea where the green is; more importantly, we didn't know how far we had to go to get a clear shot at the green. As it turns out, the left side is covered by trees, and a front-left bunkers guards the elevated green from low punch shots. The right side of the fairway, followed by a full wedge, is clearly the best option. Even so, the green is small and raised, making any approach a fairly tough one.

The second hole.

The second green presents a difficult target.

The twelfth hole is, at 174 yards, the shortest hole at Glenn Dale. It plays downhill, and a single bunker rests to the left of the green. It's the easiest hole on the course.

The twelfth hole.

The thirteenth hole is supposed to be a mid-length par 4 of 380 yards. However, the back tee was out of commission, so all the tees were moved up, meaning the hole only played 290. This section of the course is pretty heavily treed, and wouldn't you know, sticking a tee in the middle of a forest isn't a great idea. It's almost like grass does better when it actually gets light. Anyway, the hole, as we played it, is a drivable par 4 playing uphill through a narrow corridor of trees to an elevated green. If you're accurate, the green is gettable, but there's very little room for error. My brother and I both opted to lay up, though my long iron play is so precise that I was able to hit the cart path for added distance, meaning I hit a 250 yard 4 iron up the hill, which was something I totally meant to do. Anyway, the green is sloped pretty significantly from back to front, so you don't want to be above the hole. There are better birdie opportunities out there.

The thirteenth hole.

The thirteenth green.

The fourteenth hole is actually a mid-length par 4 at 375 yards. It plays significantly downhill to an unseen fairway. Also unseen: A long fairway bunker stretching down the right side of the hole. However, there's O.B. left and nothing right besides that bunker, so if you're going to miss, right is better. And I used literally all the space to the right that I could. The second shot is pretty simple, the green is fairly flat, and I don't imagine the bunker long and right gets a whole lot of usage.

The fourteenth hole.

The fourteenth green. There's plenty of room to miss the fairway right.

The fifteenth hole is the final par 3 at Glenn Dale and plays 190 yards over level terrain. The lone bunker is front right, and the green, much like many others on the course, has a significant back-to-front slope.

The fifteenth hole.

The fifteenth green.

The sixteenth hole is a bit of a weird hole. It's 400 yards and plays uphill to a blind fairway up on a plateau. The hole bends slightly left, but it isn't that simple. For whatever reason, a group of trees was allowed to remain in between the green and the landing area. That means the sixteenth is a bit of a double dogleg, and that if you don't want to lay up on a 400 yard par 4, you'll keep your tee shot well to the right. The sixteenth is bunkerless, so it relies on its unusual path through the trees for defense. And it's quite an effective defense, even though the green is pretty big, this isn't an easy hole.

The sixteenth hole. Make sure to aim out to the right.

The sixteenth green.

The seventeenth hole is the final short par 4 at Glenn Dale, though at 330 yards this hole is a bit longer than some of the others. This is another unorthodox type of hole, as the fairway bends nearly 90 degrees at about the 225 yard mark. The driving range and some big trees are left, but go through the fairway and you end up in more forest. So you really need to hit your drive a certain distance to have a clear shot at the green, but should you end up short and have to punch underneath that big tree in the corner of the dogleg, you can use the terrain short of the green to get a good shot near or even onto the green. So yeah, the tee shot is a bit silly, but the green complex makes up for it.

The seventeenth hole.

The seventeenth green is below the level of the fairway, meaning it will gladly accept run-up shots.

Glenn Dale saves its second par 5 for the very end of the round, and much like the last couple holes, the eighteenth is a bit quirky. First off, there's the drive, which has to be threaded through a 20 yard wide gap, if that. Seriously, if anything it looks even narrower when you're playing it. Then there's the length of the hole: 462 yards. If you recall, the ninth was a few yards longer, but that was a par 4. I guess because of the trees and the dogleg, this hole plays pretty long. Anyway, provided you've managed to thread the needle and find the fairway, the second shot is uphill to a green separated from the fairway by a sea of sand. Getting home in two requires a very good shot, and the green itself has some severe tilt to it, so you definitely don't want to be above the hole.

The drive on 18 plays through an exceedingly narrow chute.

The uphill second shot to 18.

The eighteenth green.

Glenn Dale Golf Club was never destined for greatness. There is very little of the spectacular within the confines of its property. At no point did I think, "wow, this is one of the best courses I've ever played." I'm sure it's never made a best of anything list. It's quiet, pleasant, unassuming golf. And that's why it was so depressing to find out that it's being closed down. It's a very likable golf course, there's not a lot of water in play, and while it could use some tree trimming, it's not narrow in most places. And it's not like it was built by a no-name architect either. Glenn Dale was built in 1950s by George Cobb, whose more notable designs include Quail Hollow, East Lake, and the par 3 course at Augusta National. While there are some bland holes, there's nothing offensive, and I genuinely like Glenn Dale's collection of short par 4s. They're interesting and don't involve slugging a drive as close to the green as possible. And the ninth hole is definitely a contender for best long par 4 that I've played.

And that's not even getting to the best part about this course: the price. If you play Glenn Dale on a weekend morning, it's $55 because the cart is mandatory. But at any other time, the course can be played for less than $30. It's easily walkable, the terrain is gently rolling, and tees are always reasonably close to greens. The maintenance is very good considering the price, this isn't a bare bones operation here. While it isn't my home course, Glenn Dale is the sort of course pretty much anyone would be thrilled to have in their backyard. And that's how I'd characterize Glenn Dale best. It's a great home course, and it's going to be a big loss to those people who do play it regularly. Not as big as it would be if Glenn Dale was in the northern D.C. suburbs rather than the east, but still noticeable. Although, Glenn Dale does have a cousin of sorts nearby: The University of Maryland golf course was also designed by George Cobb, and while it's more expensive, it's still within a reasonable price range.

If you're curious about Glenn Dale, the course closes on September 2 this year, so there's still time to get a round in. I would definitely recommend it.