Fountain Head Country Club, Hagerstown, MD (Ross)

[Greg Smith]

Today I played this lovely little course which is located about 75mi west of DC/Baltimore, and I would recommend it to anyone in the neighborhood wanting to have a looksee.

The club and its course date from 1924.  Ross was in the region that year, and at the same time he did things such as Bannockburn in Glen Echo, MD (you can see this time period on Sven Nilsen's recent Ross thread).  There's a partial set of sketches and blueprints on the Tufts Archives website which pretty well match up with what I saw today.

The club bills the course as the last "relatively untouched" work of Donald Ross left in the state of Maryland.  If you go by the Donald Ross Society list that pretty much appears to be the case.  Comparisons of Google Earth, pictures from the Historic Aerials site, and old 1930s aerials of Washington County, MD from other sources told me that at least the routing was unchanged from the beginning.  A few of the bunkers seem to be added or different, but not too many.  Looking at Ross's sketches, it kind of looked like one of those situations where there were  *places* left for bunkers to be added, pending the observation of initial play.  I guess that could be the case.

For sure, Hagerstown isn't and hasn't been the most prosperous town for awhile -- and therefore I suspect that the club never really had the $$$ to change much or "improve upon" what they had.  I would think they've been fortunate enough to just maintain good upkeep over the decades.  The course is still short, with distances like you'd find in the 1920s equipment era -- 465-yard par 5s, etc.   Tees are very close to the preceding greens.

What I wasn't sure of from my research was what kind of details I would find.  I kind of thought that this might be one of those places where Ross kind of topo-designed a project from afar and somebody else cranked it out -- one of his "businessman's courses" so to speak.

I'm thinking maybe that's not so.  An actual boots on the ground play revealed lots of micro contours within fairways and around greens, the kind of thing you would have seen from horse and scoop construction and not much earthmoving.  Seemed like a very nice piece of land with good movement, overlaid by a thoughtful routing.  It had to at least be an excellent associate or construction superintendent who eyeballed all that stuff if Ross only made the initial sketches.  Give it a bit of interior tree thinning to improve airflow and views and I think you'd have a very sharp-looking place without any other alterations.  Even with the trees it's quite pretty.

So I'd recommend that any of you all who happen to be traveling that way drop by and see what you think.   It's rather a throwback kind of golf course -- though the clubhouse and other infrastructure is much newer, the original facility having burned down, I believe.

I didn't take any pics today -- too busy playing.  I don't think the micro details would translate that well to photos, but I may try at a future date.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I have played Fountain Head a dozen times or so. It isn't long but it does require some precise ball striking and the routing over the hilly terrain makes the course enjoyable.

[Eric Hammerbacher]

It's not to far from me and I've been meaning to get out there...I had always heard it needed some tree removal.  I'm amazed there aren't any other Ross courses around.  I'll have to go to Philly to get my fix.

[Greg Smith]

There are a lot of trees, but many of them do need to stay, especially those on the perimeter of the property.  The course sits in the middle of a very nice neighborhood of old homes, many of which do appear on 1930s and 1940s aerials.  But the housing is very tastefully done (maybe even elegantly done) and most of them sit a bit back from the fairways.   The trees do screen the course effectively from the homes, so it doesn't feel too much like a housing course.

BTW, the big trees on the north end of the course near holes 10-13 do appear on the 1930s/40s pics.  As late as the 1970s the trees were much more sparse (I guess smaller) on the southern two-thirds of the property.  Take out 40% of the interior trees on that part while leaving the perimeter and I think it's all good.

One of the coolest things I saw was the places where Ross had to deal with exposed rock, much like some of the courses up in New England like Charles River.  In some instances he covered the rock with dirt to make natural-looking mounds/topography, in other places he let the rock stick out some.