PS No, I have not played Twin Lakes---36 holes, isn't it? Not even sure where it is.
Yes, 36 holes, in Clifton, VA (near Centreville), just a few minutes from Westfields. I wrote it up briefly here in the thread about your home club:
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=6627;start=msg427332#msg427332. I just re-read that post and have made a few edits below to reflect my current opinion and some changes to the course:
The older layout, the Lakes (1967), is a fun change of pace occasionaly for the better golfer and perfect for the higher handicapper. The Lakes is more open with fewer hazards that come into play -- only three holes have significant trouble on both sides of the fairway -- but it has simpler green complexes and is less visually interesting.
My biggest complaint about the Oaks was its conditioning -- but they installed new turf in all the fairways last year and that has made quite an improvement. The course is hilly but walkable -- but the cart path only policy (because of the new turf) should slow down play to a certain extent.
I find that the Oaks offers the best combination of balanced holes, challenging but fair (especially for the mid handicapper like myself), decent pace of play (the Lakes tends to get a lower quality of golfer and therefore play slower), walkable, and attractive (no surrounding homes) that's within 30-40 minutes of where I live. The design is straight forward, with the occasional blind shot and bit of deception; the fairways are wide but trouble happens if you miss them by much (the Oaks is a fair title -- there are many heavily treed areas with thick underbrush). Greens have some slope, but putts that don't have an obvious big swing due tend to break less than you will read; these subtle breaks can make it tough for the first timer to score well. The course is not the toughest for a low handicapper, but quite difficult for the mid or high handicapper. The white tees ratings are 70.7/135 for 6316 yards (from the tips it plays 6700 yards witrh ratings of 72.5/137).
[note: all yardages provided are from the white tees]
I think the biggest reason I have made this my home course is that I like the balance in holes: about an equal number of dogleg left vs. right; a good mix of long and short holes (par 3s range from 130 to 217 yds, par 4s from 300 to 435 yds). And the par fours are especially strong: 5 of them are between 300-350 yds, but they each feel different and test different types of shots. Several of them appear to be much easier than they play (at least for me). Yet two of the par fours are around 430 yds from the white tees, #2 has a 190 yard carry over a pond from the tee, then the second shot plays all uphill to a well guarded green on the front-left and a bailout area to the right. The middle of the back nine includes a brutal stretch of four holes, the easiest of which is another 430 yd par four.
This winter the combined the tees, so you only had two options, up ro back tees. Some days the back tees were positioned from the normal blue tees, other days they moved them up to the normal white tees.
One other interesting quirk: most of the tree-lined areas are red staked. I believe this is to speed up play; I wonder what GCAers think of this policy.