Columbia Country Club - Washington DC - Photo Tour

[Chip Gaskins]

Columbia Country Club

Columbia Country Club was designed in 1911 by Walter J. Travis.

The U.S. Open was held at the Club in 1921.

There have been many changes to the course over the years on almost all of the holes.  I know I have read here on GCA about the many architects that have worked on this in-town club in D.C.

According to Wikipedia: Legend has it that the par 3 16th hole served as Bobby Jones's inspiration for the 12th hole at Augusta National.


Hole #1
Green


Hole #2
Approach shot


Hole #3
Tee shot


Simply could not pass up this….


Hole #5
Not sure which architect gets credit for this green but is is the best on the course.  We putted around for 10 minutes.  Awesome par 5 green complex.


Hole #6
Tee shot


Hole #6
Looking back from the green


Hole #6
Greenside bunker


Hole #8
Par 3 with a very sloping green!


Hole #8
Green


Hole #10
Very fun greensite!


Hole #11


Hole #13
Par 3 over a huge valley


Hole #15
My favorite on the course


Hole #15
Green


Hole #16
Rocks!


Hole #17
Certainly one of my favorites on the course.  Driveable Par 4.  Trouble lurks everywhere around the green!


Hole #18
Approach

[Bill_McBride]

#17 might be driveable, but 4I SW is the only play!  As you said, there is trouble everywhere.

If #16 was Bobby Jones' inspiration for #12 at ANGA, the green is certainly very deep!  Maybe a dyslexic #16 ANGA!

I really love that course, but it looks awfully lush.  I guess the summer there has been hot and wet.

[DMoriarty]

Chip,

Nice Photos.  According to the D.C. papers at the time, originally H.H. Barker planned the course.  Travis did some work there in the teens, I think.   (At the time Barker planned the course, he was the pro at Garden City, and I think that Travis later took credit for getting Barker involved in golf course design.)

[Chip Gaskins]

Bill

I played there in April.  Cold Cold winter in DC this year.

David

I knew someone would step up to talk about the history here.  Many famous architects seem to have worked on CCC.  I member reading threads from Tom Paul about maybe even Flynn having something to do with CCC?

Chip

[Wayne Freeman]

Chip-  thanks for the photos.   I played there a few years ago and very much enjoyed the course.  I was struck by the number of long par 4's for a course that old.  They have 5 par 4's over 425 and as I remember at least a couple of them were real ballbusters.   

[Jonathan Cummings]

Rob Walton has been doing some restore work at CCC over the past few years.  The clubhouse may be an even bigger story than the course.

There is only one problem with the #16 myth.  The current #16 at CCC was designed and built AFTER the 12th at Augusta.  The original 16th at CCC looked nothing like the current hole.

JC

[Ben Voelker]

Chip,

Thanks for the photos.

The drive on number 3 looks quite interesting with the slope of the fairway seemingly pushing anything with too much right to left into the creek.  Is the best position for the approach from the left side of the fairway?

Ben

[rboyce]

Nice tour! Columbia is a really fun and enjoyable course. Pictures never quite capture some of the elevation changes. I still remember the Junior Am runner-up hitting the green in two on number five by hitting driver off the fairway.

[Scott Furlong]

Bill,

If you look at the trees it is early spring.  Most things are lush in the spring.......is lush a problem?

[Bill_McBride]

Bill,

If you look at the trees it is early spring.  Most things are lush in the spring.......is lush a problem?

Lush is okay but Columbia always played pretty firm in the 80's and early 90's when I played there frequently.  As Wayne Freeman mentions above, Columbia has some long par 4's and is designed in classic era style for a lot of ground game shots.  If it's too lush those options go away.  There is really good topography for surface drainage.

[Craig Disher]

In the mid 1920s, Flynn drew up plans for altering hole #1 and constructing a new green on #2.  The 2nd green was probably reconstructed according to his plan - the putting surface conforms to the slopes in his drawing - but there's no evidence that his plan for the 1st was ever executed.

I haven't seen the course since Bob Walton worked on it but the pictures show he did a lot of work on the bunkers as well as clearing out a few trees. To my mind, it's still the premier golf course in the DC area.

Where did the idea that the 16th was the inspiration for ANGC's 12th start? An early article on the course - I think in Am Golfer - said the 16th green was inspired by the 12th at Garden City.

[TEPaul]

Chip:

I think it's pretty well accepted that HH Barker originally laid out Columbia and Travis did some work there later. As Craig Disher mentioned Flynn did some plans but it looks like #2 was all he actually did do. The original 16th green did not look anything like the present one and I believe Jonathan Cummings is right in that #16 as it is in that photo may've been done after ANGC. If so it would seem it's something of a copy of ANGC's #12, at least in look from the tee and with that bunker in the center of the line. I don't remember if I ever knew or heard who did the second and present iteration but the original green was quite different----I think a big squarish affair if I recall correctly. It's an interesting green in that it really does look a lot like ANGC's #12 from the tee but quite a lot less like it when you get on and around the green. It's the same basic shape but it's much bigger than #12 at ANGC---perhaps twice the size.

It may not be very well documented but given his position with Columbia GC I suspect a certain amount of architectural attribution should probably go to Walter Harban which this site may not know that much about. He was not technically an architect even though I believe he got involved in it at Columbia at least, but he certainly was central to the development of American agronomy in his capacity with Piper and Oakley, the Wilson brothers of Merion and Pine Valley and others such at E.J. Marshall of Inverness with the early development and creation of the USGA's Green Section.

I did spend a day or two with Bob Waldron there a few years ago, once with Wayne and once alone, and I think he did a very good job on those bunkers and such. The hole we concentrated on most was the par 3 with the tee next to the half way house. We were trying to get it to play more "redanish" but it just didn't work out because of various factors like the landform on the right, drainage, cart path etc and the reality of having to do too much earthwork for that particular landform to make it function as visualized.

I have no real evidence of it but there may be something of an unknown story in the first decade of the 20th century of Barker and Travis perhaps working together in various capacities and certainly seeing as Barker was the professional at GCGC, Travis's course. I suspect if they had some kind of working arrangement with architecture some of it may've hinged on the fact Travis was a golf amateur (of championship caliber) and protecting his amateur status standing. Travis' amateur status standing had been questioned for one reason or another by various people for something over fifteen years beginning in 1901. I have a hunch that this was just another reason that contributed to the fairly well known falling out between Travis and Macdonald; I'm fairly sure it was Macdonald himself who wrote some of the seminal amateur status interpretations and resolutions for the USGA around 1914-1917. At that point he was still one of the central committeemen on the USGA's Rules Committee and his writing style is pretty complex and identifiable.

[Bill_McBride]

Chip:

I think it's pretty well accepted that HH Barker originally laid out Columbia and Travis did some work there later. As Craig Disher mentioned Flynn did some plans but it looks like #2 was all he actually did do. The original 16th green did not look anything like the present one and I believe Jonathan Cummings is right in that #16 as it is in that photo may've been done after ANGC. If so it would seem it's something of a copy of ANGC's #12, at least in look from the tee and with that bunker in the center of the line. I don't remember if I ever knew or heard who did it but the original green was very different. It's an interesting green in that it really does look a lot like ANGC's #12 from the tee but quite a lot less like it when you get around the green. It's much bigger than #12 at ANGC---perhaps twice the size.

It may not be very well documented but given his position with Columbia GC I suspect a certain amount of architectural attribution should probably go to Walter Harban which this site may not know that much about. He was not technically an architect even though I believe he got involved in it at Columbia at least, but he certainly was central to the development of American agronomy in his capacity with Piper and Oakley, the Wilson brothers of Merion and Pine Valley and others such at E.J. Marshall of Inverness with the early development and creation of the USGA's Green Section.

I did spend a day or two with Bob Waldron there a few years ago, once with Wayne and once alone, and I think he did a very good job on those bunkers and such. The hole we concentrated on most was the par 3 with the tee next to the half way house. We were trying to get it to play more "redanish" but it just didn't work out because of various factors like the landform on the right, drainage, cart path etc and the reality of having to do too much earthwork to make it function as visualized.

I have no real evidence of it but there may be something of an unknown story in the first decade of the 20th century of Barker and Travis perhaps working together in various capacities and certainly seeing as Barker was the professional at GCGC, Travis's course. I suspect if they had some kind of working arrangement some of it may've hinged on the fact Travis was a golf amateur (of championship caliber) and protecting his amateur status standing.

Tom, that par 3 #8 may not play "Redanish," but when the course is firm and that green is slippery, a ball upper right can well wind up down at the bottom left.   Usually when the pin is upper right where you wish it had stayed!

[Chip Gaskins]

The 8th green is crazy fast.  I hit a punch 4 iron that some how stayed up on the right side and then I promptly putted it off the green.  Everyone in my group three putted that hole.  A pin on the left is very hard to stop a ball near.

Does anyone know anything about the 10# green?  It is really different than the rest of the course and is really cool, especially if it is F&F.

I was surprised about how severe the terrain was for that part of the city.  It is quite hilly.

Bill-

I know 4I,SW is the correct play but I had to give it a go on #17.  Of course I ended up on #18 tee :-(

[Bill_McBride]

Bill-

I know 4I,SW is the correct play but I had to give it a go on #17.  Of course I ended up on #18 tee :-(

You were probably lucky to have ended up on the tee with a good lie.  But short sided?      GREAT little par 4.

[Carl Nichols]

It's been a couple of years since I was out there last, but #15 looks a lot different -- seems like they might be cutting the tall grass down the hill to the left, and that they might have taken some trees out near the green.  From the right tees, if you're long enough, driver is (or was) definitely a possibility b/c you could fly it to either the downslope or the fairway, and then get a kick near the green.  Probably not prudent, but certainly fun to crest the hill and see where your drive has ended up. 

Perhaps more than any other course in DC, one of the keys to playing well at Columbia is to miss below the hole, even if that means being off the green.  The greens have a lot of slope to them (including near the edges), and they are usually pretty quick, so being short-sided is a disaster. 

Fun course!