[Andy Hughes]

The University of Maryland course is another George Cobb course.  I don't know when it was built, but it 'feels' like Glenn Dale down the road (1950s) also done by Cobb.
(Yardages approximations on my part)

#1, 460 yards. Lot of hole right off the bat.
Drive down the valley and then back up the hill to the green (much like Glenn Dale begins).  Pond 100 yards or so short of the green becomes quite an issue if the drive finds the rough or trees.


#2, 460 yards.  Even more hole than the first.  Plenty of room to drive right, but that lengthens an already long hole, and a shorter club is needed for a small, narrow green perched atop a hill.  This hole, while a toughie, is in my opinion poorly designed/maintained. There is a pond left, as well as some flat ground and the most direct route to the green.  But instead of maintaining the area as fairway and tempting people to get the preferred angle, and in the process having to come near the pond, it is left as rough.  This makes one and all aim away from the water.


#6, 410 yards
Not a momentous hole, but a solid, underestimated one. Drive needs to avoid a bunker inside the dogleg, but skirt it to shorten the uphill approach.  Left side of green is guarded by a bunker and is the preferred side as it leaves an uphill putt.  Bunker seems to have gotten further from the green over time.  If the 2 bunkers were redone and made a bit more ferocious, this hole would shine.


#8, 120 yards.
Drop shot hole.  


#10, 410 yards.
Tee shot to a fairly wide fairway, and approach down to a mostly open green. This hole does not stand out, but it highlights, as does Glenn Dale, the virtue of a green raised a few feet above its surrounds.  A short that misses by just a little can leave a very tricky recovery. Nice rolling terrain as well, with an attractive backdrop.


Approach to 10


#12, 400 yards.
Another dogleg right, with the corner guarded by an old and tired bunker and the green to the right and up the hill.  But a good, bunkerless green complex here. An approach just a tad hesistant can roll back down the hill, while an overbold iron can leave a very tricky pitch back down the slope of the green.  This green also has some of the most interesting contours of any here.


#13, 520 yards.
Interesting tee shot, the hole doglegs left off the tee and the fairway is rather severely sloped left-to-right.  When things are a bit firm, it can be fairly tough just to hit and hold the fairway.  A draw is strongly preferred.


Green:


#14, 220 yards.
Very good, tough hole.  Long green, pinched in the middle. A miss right of the green will bounce down the hill and go much further right.  

[Andrew Summerell]

Thanks for the pics, Andy.

They look like two tough starting holes. How well do most golfer play them, being that they are at the start of the round. What is their hole rating?

The cart paths look quite old & possibly in play a bit, especially on the 2nd. You thought the course may have been built in the 50's due to it feeling similar to Glenn Dale. Do you think the cart paths were constructed at the same time the course was constructed?

[Andy Scanlon]

Thanks for the pics.  I have played there several times and think it is a nice course, but always thought ACC-caliber players would tear it up...

[Andy Hughes]

Perhaps you need a specific name to comment on this course

Andrew, from my experience, if you are even after two holes, you are winning your match.
I don't have any idea when the cart paths were installed. I would doubt they are 50 years old though. You are correct though--they do get a tad too close to the line of play and I have seen several shots hit them and receive the wierd, cartpath bounce.

Andy, I would expect top ACC players would tear up most any course. But point well taken; I do not consider this to be a particularly difficult course.  I suspect a renovation would help, especially to the bunkers (now small and toothless) and green surrounds.

[Mike_Cirba]

Andy,

You really are goading Matt Ward here, aren't you?  

What's next....the 36 holes you have to play at Mountain Manor and Water Gap CC before you die?  

Seriously, I love this stuff....keep it up!

[Bill_McBride]

Andy, please arrange to have the cart path on #8 moved: it's seriously fugly!  

[Andy Scanlon]

Perhaps you need a specific name to comment on this course

Andrew, from my experience, if you are even after two holes, you are winning your match.
I don't have any idea when the cart paths were installed. I would doubt they are 50 years old though. You are correct though--they do get a tad too close to the line of play and I have seen several shots hit them and receive the wierd, cartpath bounce.

Andy, I would expect top ACC players would tear up most any course. But point well taken; I do not consider this to be a particularly difficult course.  I suspect a renovation would help, especially to the bunkers (now small and toothless) and green surrounds.

Andy H:

Agreed.  There are some fairly difficult holes (#1, 2, 11, and 18 come immediately to mind) but on the whole it is not a difficult course nor, if I remember correctly, particularly long (though, of course, length does not necessarily equate to difficulty).  Is a renovation in the works?

[Paul Carey]

When I played the course regularly in the late 1970s the nines were reversed and I believe that was the original design.  The current 1 and 2 were 10 and 11.  The current 10th (416 par downhill par four)  was a very nice opener--a friendly handshake.  I believe they reversed the nines because of the terrible backups that would occur on the second hole which is a 240 yard up hill par three from the back tees.  Since it effectively played as a par four yet no group would tee off until the green cleared causing huge delays right off the bat.

I really enjoy Cobb courses.  Everyone I play I walk off and find the course challenging and interesting but I never feel beaten up.  I think he is an under rated "country club" course designers.  A decent level of interesting shots but playable for almost any handicap.

Fear the Turtle!

[Jonathan Cummings]

As a long-time Terrapin Club member psycho and alumni those pics warm my heart.  The unfortunate fact though is the course is often in dreadful condition, a ball eater (from dense unmaintained woods with thick cover) and a sub 5-hour round the exception.

JC

[Andy Hughes]

What's next....the 36 holes you have to play at Mountain Manor and Water Gap CC before you die?

Mike, your jest is more right than you know.  True confession time---while I have no affection for Mt Manor, I do miss Water Gap, from the ultra tall flagstick to the sloping fairway par 5 (#10 or so) that can't be hit and held, to the giant hill right in front of the tee on the short par 4 that moves a little left (maybe #4 or so?)  
I made my second eagle ever there, on #1.  Drained it from the fairway though I was below the level of the green and could not see it.  (Trivia question for you Mr Cirba--knowing I grew up at Glenbrook, where would you guess my first eagle ever was?).

[Andy Hughes]

Bill, if I had the pull to handle your request, there are some other changes coming as well! But you are right--it is a decent looking hole, marred by the unsightly cartpath.

Andy S, I'm afraid I do not know anything about plans for the course.

Paul, that makes sense re the nines being reversed.  Very easy to see current 11 sinking the tee sheet.  Very tough hole, sorry I don't have a decent picture of it.  Though current 1 and 2 are a tough road to hoe right out of the gate, and as Jonathon says, there don't seem to be rapid rounds anyway.

[Matt MacIver]

Thanks for the pictures and update, I started golfing while a Terp in the late 80s and logged 20+ rounds there at the student rate around ~$15.  It seems to me that they've since re-routed again, as today's #8 looks like my #17, and #12 looks like my #18.  But I was rarely in the fairway much anyway.

[Tim Taylor]

Best publicly accessible course inside the Beltway!

Used to play there a lot when my office was in Bethesda. Haven't been in over five years. Might have to give it a try this season.

There's also an interesting short, semi-blind par 4 on the back nine. #17 I think.

TimT

[Scott_Burroughs]

Brings back a few memories from when I lived about a mile from here, across from UM (and down the road from 'The Vous' right after I became legal).  I remember the long par 4's and also seem to remember a number of doglegs as well.

Didn't executive-length Paint Branch, probably a half-mile from the UM course, get plowed under for development within the past 10 years or so?

[Matt MacIver]

I remember Paint Branch too.  This website says it's still there as a 9-hole exec.  

http://www.pgparks.com/places/sportsfac/golf.html#Paint%20Branch

[Frank_Stanger]

As they say in the investment brochures, this information is not guaranteed, but deemed reliable.

The University of MD Golf Course opened in 1958.  It was built with the school's proceeds from the 1956 Orange Bowl (a 20-6 loss to Oklahoma).  As mentioned, the course was designed by George Cobb, and over the years, a number of accomplished golfers called it home.  If I'm not mistaken, Deane Beaman played on the golf team there, as did Bill Calfee and George Burns.  And of course, Fred Funk was the golf coach there, and I believe holds the course record.

In the 1960s (I think), Beaman and Jack Nickaus played a exhibition match at the course.  According to legend, while playing the first hole, Nicklaus took a might swing and ripped his pants.  Someone was dispatched back to the clubhouse to find another pair that fit him so he could continue play (don't know if that was in "Fat Jack" days).

The course is often in rough shape now.  About 20 years ago (I think), a decision was made to convert the fairways and rough to Bermuda grass.  Not a good choice in the mid-Atlantic.  As a result, the course is often "patchy."  One thing for sure, though, the patchy Bemuda rough makes chipping a challenge.

In my opinion, the course itself has "good bones."  It is on a 150 acre site with a lot of elevation changes.  There are a number of lengthy, challenging par fours and a short, fun par four on each side.  Three of the four par threes can be quite difficult.  (One clocks in at 230 yards to a narrow, hour-glass shaped green; another is 240 yards.)  The par fives, however, are very weak.

Currently, there is a group of alumni who are trying to raise funds for a renovation.  A year ago, they had a plan to rebuild all the greens, lengthen the par fives, and address the deterioration of the bunkering.  It is my understanding that Bill Love helped put together some of the specific thoughts on the renovation.

The committee leading the renovation effort hoped to raise $6 million for the project.

It would take a major renovation to bring the course up to a level to make it suitable for collegiate play.  I don't think the Terp golf team plays any signficant tournaments at the course - and hasn't for years.  And why would they, considering the quality of some of the other courses in the ACC - and in the region.

Right now, the Golf Course is truly an undervalued asset at the University.  It's got a great inside the Washington-Beltway location and could be a premier public course in the region.  But who knows, it could end up another practice field for the Fridge's football team.  That would be ironic wouldn't it - that after 50 years, the proceeds from the '56 Orange Bowl find their way back to the football program.

[Martin Del Vecchio]

So where does the UM team play its matches?

[Andy Hughes]

There's also an interesting short, semi-blind par 4 on the back nine. #17 I think.

Tim, that's exactly right. The hole is ~ 330, but it seems to play shorter at times becomes of topography.  Fun to have a go at this one, but you can get awfully close and end up with a verrrry tough up and down depending on where the pin is and where you are.
#3 and #7 are also good short 4s.  #3 especially could become a great hole, but not as it currently is.

'The Vous'

Man, everyone I know who went to Maryland worships the Vous!

Craig, that would be good news, both for the course and for local golfers.  I don't believe it would take a lot to make this a very good course. There are so many potentially interesting holes in the current routing just waiting to be burnished a bit.

[Frank_Stanger]

Martin,

My understanding is that UMD plays most of its matches "on the road."  If they/when they do play at home, I believe it is mainly against lesser (read: non-ACC) competition.

I may have this wrong, but this is what I have heard.

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