I had the opportunity to play in a charity outing at this course today. Despite 7" of rain over the weekend the course was reasonably well drained.
Like the other Norman courses I've played (Wente and Champions Gate "American" course) it has generous fairways and minimal rough. On many of these holes the width can be used to create proper angles into the greens.
The course basically lies near the Potomac river floodplain. I read an interview with Norman a while back where he said that they had brought in tons of soil to build the course up several feet above the surrounding area. Judging by how well drained the course was, and how full the various ponds and wetland "containment" areas were it certainly appears to be a well engineered work. The downside of this is that it is not uncommon to get unfriendly kicks off that mounding and into hazards.
The course features many elevated greens and quite a few of them have closely mown areas on one or more sides of the greens. It kinda looked like the Mirasol course where the PGA plays the Honda classic. The bunkering was abundant and dramatic, often cut into slopes of the elevated greens. Many of the greens were very narrow and long. Almost all had a bailout area(s). It definitely struck me as a course that would make you think. Not that we did much of that in a scramble!
We played from the 6000 yard tees so it's hard to judge how I really feel about the course but I certainly want to get back and play my own ball from the 6500 or 6900 yard tees. I'm not going anywhere near the 7300 yarders.
There was some talk that the Booz Allen could go there if Avenel doesn't work out. It could certainly challenge the big boys but I don't know where they'd put 30,000 fans. The course is basically either fairway, green or wetland.
Worth a look if you're in the area and get the opportunity.
Like a dumba** I forgot my camera so I don't have any pics to post
So, in honor of my stupidity:
TimT