Woodmont North

[Bernie Bell]

Woodmont is hosting the US Women's Am this week, with several hours of TV time scheduled later in the week.  Unfortunately there is a possibility of torrential rain Tuesday with Tropical Storm Isaias.  Dark Ages (Alfred Tull 1950) with subsequent work by Arthur Hills and more recently by Joel Weiman/McDonald.  Highly regarded around here as a players' test; US Open sectional for 30+ years. 

https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/woodmont-cc-reopens-north-course-following-renovation#

https://www.noga.org/2020/07/28/120th-u-s-womens-amateur-championship-fact-sheet/

[JohnVDB]

It’s a very nice course.  I worked a US Open Sectional there a view years ago and thought It looked really good.

[mike_malone]

Bunkers have that upholstered look. But it looks like some nice up and down.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I played the MD amatuer there many years ago. It is a very good course and good test. Nice terrain, many doglegs, good shape, but it is nothing to go out of your way to play. It is a big time club with another course that isn't as hard but is more fun.

[Ira Fishman]

I played the MD amatuer there many years ago. It is a very good course and good test. Nice terrain, many doglegs, good shape, but it is nothing to go out of your way to play. It is a big time club with another course that isn't as hard but is more fun.

I have played only the South Course which indeed is fun. DC is a golf poor major Metro area. Woodmont has been committed to hosting lower profile USGA events to its credit. Congressional chases the headline ones.


Ira

[Dan Herrmann]

It looked to me that they had done some significant tree removal (great!).   But some of the stonework around the ponds looked very artificial and took away from the more natural aspects of the course.   

[Jerry Kluger]

Woodmont North has been hosting US Open Sectional Qualifiers for more than 25 years and had used the South as well until the Kemper Open left Congressional and Avenel and the field was much smaller.  The North is an Alfred Tull design and at one point Arthur Hills came in and did some renovation/redesign work which I was not a big fan of as it wound up with a very typical look to other courses which he had done in the area.  The members always wanted a very green looking course which usually meant it was not firm and fast.  They had one greenskeeper for a very long time and he convinced them to regress the course, etc. but it never got to the conditioning level they wanted.  He finally retired and they brought in a new greenskeeper who I believe was an assistant at Kinloch.  The course conditioning improved quite a bit and I believe he was behind the removal of the trees.  Some redesign work was done recently as the bunkers are clearly different from the previous look.  The stonework which is used to retain the walls around some ponds is understandable while there are quite a few places where there are much more natural looks around the water.  An interesting aside is that the South course is Zoysia grass fairways which is unusual in this climate. 

[Anthony_Nysse]

Woodmont North has been hosting US Open Sectional Qualifiers for more than 25 years and had used the South as well until the Kemper Open left Congressional and Avenel and the field was much smaller.  The North is an Alfred Tull design and at one point Arthur Hills came in and did some renovation/redesign work which I was not a big fan of as it wound up with a very typical look to other courses which he had done in the area.  The members always wanted a very green looking course which usually meant it was not firm and fast.  They had one greenskeeper for a very long time and he convinced them to regress the course, etc. but it never got to the conditioning level they wanted.  He finally retired and they brought in a new greenskeeper who I believe was an assistant at Kinloch.  The course conditioning improved quite a bit and I believe he was behind the removal of the trees.  Some redesign work was done recently as the bunkers are clearly different from the previous look.  The stonework which is used to retain the walls around some ponds is understandable while there are quite a few places where there are much more natural looks around the water.  An interesting aside is that the South course is Zoysia grass fairways which is unusual in this climate.

Pete Wendt left Kinloch to lead the revival at Woodmond. Pete left nearly 2 years ago to take over at Congressional. One of Pete's former Assistants, who was the Superintendent at The Olde Farm took over for. His name is Ryan Severidt. 

[Jerry Kluger]

I thought the course looked really good and you could see quite a variety of holes.  Problem was that it was soaking wet from the tropical storm earlier in the week.  It also says something positive about the course when the defending champion gets to the finals.

[Carl Nichols]

Woodmont North has been hosting US Open Sectional Qualifiers for more than 25 years and had used the South as well until the Kemper Open left Congressional and Avenel and the field was much smaller.  The North is an Alfred Tull design and at one point Arthur Hills came in and did some renovation/redesign work which I was not a big fan of as it wound up with a very typical look to other courses which he had done in the area.  The members always wanted a very green looking course which usually meant it was not firm and fast.  They had one greenskeeper for a very long time and he convinced them to regress the course, etc. but it never got to the conditioning level they wanted.  He finally retired and they brought in a new greenskeeper who I believe was an assistant at Kinloch.  The course conditioning improved quite a bit and I believe he was behind the removal of the trees.  Some redesign work was done recently as the bunkers are clearly different from the previous look.  The stonework which is used to retain the walls around some ponds is understandable while there are quite a few places where there are much more natural looks around the water.  An interesting aside is that the South course is Zoysia grass fairways which is unusual in this climate.

Pete Wendt left Kinloch to lead the revival at Woodmond. Pete left nearly 2 years ago to take over at Congressional. One of Pete's former Assistants, who was the Superintendent at The Olde Farm took over for. His name is Ryan Severidt.

We were lucky enough at Bethesda CC to hire another former Wendt assistant, who was at both Kinloch and Woodmont, as our head superintendent.  He's been terrific.