Aerial of the Day #184 - 29 Aug 2002

[Scott_Burroughs]

Do I smell smoke?  No wonder, as this course has more hot
air than any other course.

[Mike_Cirba]

Does it cost a lot of Capitol to join?  

[WilliamWang]

i think a retired golf commentator is a member here.

[Scott_Burroughs]

A major "circular" highway is just off the aerial to the west.

How come I don't see any ladies tees?  

[JSlonis]

The course looks nice...I could get really "fired up" to play there.

[Mike Benham]

Do we need a tree clearing program?  How does it go ... when
you are in the forest you can see the trees ...

And the road to the clubhouse must be under there
somewhere

[JSlonis]

On a non-clue note...somewhat interesting feature...

With the exception of one hole, there is a total lack of fairway bunkering.

[Dan Kelly]

Holy Moses!

So manna big bushes!

[Mike Benham]

On a non-clue note...somewhat interesting feature...

With the exception of one hole, there is a total lack of fairway bunkering.

So then it must Olympic Lake ... no of course not it was AOTD #29 ... but then again, if my calculations are correct, those bunkers are 240-260 from the tee and we should be able to fly them with moderen technology

[Scott_Burroughs]

You think decisions regarding changes to your course are
political?  This place must take the cake for highly political
green committees.  It probably takes an act of Congress to
get anything done around here.   When all is said and done,
the aftermath of green committee meetings is probably just
a bunch of smoldering embers.

Is hunting allowed on the grounds here?  If so, you might
find Quayle in the Bushes.  

This place is so private, that there's probably Cheney-linked
fences all around.

I was surprised when I found out what highly-regarded
architect designed this course.

[Kevin_Reilly]

Pop culture reference:

Is this club related to that group
of yuppies and dot-commers who go to
the desert each year and hold a festival where they
light a giant fire?

[Robert Kimball]

Not too many cars in the parking
lot.  An invitation to play here
must be a "hot" commodity indeed.

I will have to get my girlfriend to get
my Christmas gift in the pro shop. She's
only allowed in one time/year.

[Scott_Burroughs]

I'll be back at 4:00 EDT to reveal....

[Mike_Cirba]

Scott;

I'm sure we'll all just be burning with anticipation!

Double check the archie if you came across the same thing I did....I find that hard to believe!

[WilliamWang]

i think this club has a long list of renovators to which will be included arthur hills who put together a master plan back in 1997/98 ?(not sure of the date).

[JSlonis]

Mike & Scott,

I was surprised as well.

I came across the same architect as you..."Dr. Mac"  It sure doesn't look like something he would've done. It would be interesting to know if this course was altered over the years beyond recognition of the original design.

[SPDB]

I thought it was C&A

[Craig Disher]

If there were renovations done, they weren't significant. This view of the course from 1937 shows not much has changed. I played the course many years ago and except for seeing a future president's name posted as prospective member and a fabulous buffet lunch, can't remember much - the weather was horrible and I was glad to be done.

[WilliamWang]

most definitely C&A.  golfcourse.com must have it wrong as brad klein's h.s. colt bio in golfonline lists this course.

[Scott_Burroughs]

This is Burning Tree, in Bethesda, MD, just outside
Washington, D.C. (but inside the Beltway, barely), by Colt &
Alison, though I was thrown off by golfcourse.com's listing of
MacKenzie as the architect.

Burning Tree is all-male, and most of those male are bigwigs
in politics, Congressmen, etc.  BT is more "Congressional"
than Congressional is.  Perhaps more decisions affecting the
country have been made here than at the Capitol.  

I can only imagine the political Who's Who of past and
current members here.


clues include:

"smoke", "hot air", "smoldering embers", "fired up", "giant
fire", "hot", "burning" = "burning tree"

"hot air" also refers to the politicians who are members here.

"Capitol", "political", "act of Congress"

"Quayle" and "Bush"es I'm sure played here/were members.  
Don't known if "Cheney" golfs.

"no ladies tees" = all-male

"circular highway" = Beltway

"retired golf commentator" who's a member =  Ken Venturi,
who his infamous 1964 U.S. Open nearby at Congressional.


Thanks for the old aerial, Craig!  These are great.  Where's
the Beltway in this one?  

[Matt_Cohn]

Don't the first teeshot (from the front porch of the clubhouse) and the last teeshot (over the lake, straight towards the clubhouse) look appealing? Hopefully my nine's aren't mixed up.

[Joe Andriole]

the purported original drawings of the course by Allison are for sale by Scottish dealer Rhod Mcewan and are detailed on his web site

[Brad Klein]

Great locker room with a vaulted ceiling and those metal vented lockers. The local rule is to walk around shirtless in the clubhouse during summers, as I recall, though we played it on a cold day in March 1999 and came away rather underwhelmed about the layout.

[Adam_Messix]

Brad-

I am surprised that you came away underwhelmed about Burning Tree....it came off as a pleasant surprise to me.  

The greens have some really interesting contouring and are particularly difficult putting from back to front.  The number of strong par 4 holes surprised me as well....the par 3s are terrific too, especially #11 with a severish green with an enormous speciman oak behind.....it paralells the current Washington beltway if that helps with finding it in the picture.  The par 5s were the definite weakness of Burning Tree...non of them are over 515 yards....but this seems to be an issue on a number of Alison designs in the U. S.  

The course was recently renovated/restored so I am thinking that you played before the work.  I'm not totally sure who did it the work though.

As an aside, the club lists the firm of Colt/MacKenzie& Alison as the designers of the course.  This was from when they had the not-partnership partnership I am assuming.  

[Tom MacWood (Guest)]

The beltway forced the remodelling of the 10th and 11th - which are on the left-middle of the current photo.