Falls Road

Year Opened: 1961

Architect: Ed Ault

Web: www.montgomerycountygolf.com/FR_home.html

Phone: (301) 299-5156

Considering its setting in the midst of some of the wealthiest folks in the country, there used to be an almost in-your-face lowbrow feel to this course: the corrugated roof “pro shop”, the muddy path heading to the equipment shed, the vacant snack bar attached to the pro shop. We would come here quite a bit in the early 90s, mostly because…I guess we were masochists – certainly not because the golf course was hard (it most definitely wasn’t) but due to the aggravatingly slow pace of play. Our spirits (never exactly in a state of grace) would plummet when we’d find ourselves behind a gaggle of visor-wearing soccer moms (perhaps they were moms of soccer moms or wanna-be soccer moms or soccer momdom had passed them by – all I know is they drove mini-vans, thought Reagan was a genial populist bloke and spent more time comparing foyers and granite counter-tops than actually playing golf). Sometimes we’d really get lucky and the bratty kids would join mom in the fun. Yikes. It reminded me of an Ionesco play – repetitive, absurd and too fucking long. They’d hit off the tee and then all four would slowly saunter to the first ball, gather round, maybe balance their checkbook or participate in a ten-minute panel discussion on that week's episode of "Desperate Housewives", watch their partner hit a 20 yard grounder, spend a minute or two consoling her and then off the four would go to the next ball, though a mulligan per hole was certainly an almost mandatory part of the drill.

This used to be a mediocre offering. A big hilly field with some tees, some trees and some flags. Too many hacks, too slow, very little to look forward to, though admittedly there were a few holes on the backside that warranted a look-see.

Now then, fast forward 15 years. I’d heard that there had been significant upgrades in the course and despite my better judgment, I decided to check it out. And you know what, improvements had been made. The clubhouse is sunny, airy and pleasant and they even offer micro-brewed beer – great, where was that gimmick back when me and my boy would be detoxing while waiting to get off?

The entire front side has been re-routed and decorative wheat grasses have been planted, and while the changes have definitely enhanced the playability and aesthetics, pace of play remains a problem. When I returned, there was a dearth of soccer moms (I guess the Container Store was running a sale) but you still had the hack factor and the grasses lining the first and second holes were prime searching-for-lost-balls real estate. Oh, and they will search, like clueless kids at a scavenger hunt. The original Ed Ault routing started off where the current driving range is located and at least had a respectable green site at the top of the hill, followed by a featureless par 5 and then back to back drive-and-pitch 285-yard par 4s on the northern edge of the property. Ault’s son’s firm, Ault & Clark, did a respectable job of altering the routing – blowing up the two weak par 4 shorties and replacing them with an OK 3-par (#3) and the best hole on the front side – the serpentine par 5 fourth, which utilizes the rolling topography adeptly and features a large oak tree which poses some problems for the big boppers who decide to have a go at the green in two. The rest of us can pop it over a gully to the fairway right of the tree, leaving a pretty testy approach to the recessed green well below the fairway. Mostly what Ed’s boy has done is bring some fairway bunkering into the mix, a concept the old man just wasn’t comfortable with.

The hardest hole is unquestionably the twelfth, a narrow long par 4 with a substantially raised green sloping from a mound on the right. As you stand on the tee, on your left you see some seriously hooked-up property, with swimming pools, tennis courts, gazebos, like that. 13 through the retooled 18th are the strength of the course, but again, by this time you’ve been out there 5 hours, tired of yet again looking at the visored crew reloading on the tee after a weak slice grounder into the woods. There’s a lake on the short par 5 sixteenth which requires a minimal carry of the tee with some new fairway bunkers planted into the hillside left but beyond that there isn’t much to say, though the completely new finishing hole utilizes fairway cross- bunkering in a strategic thoughtful manner, something unseen back in Ed Ault’s day – well, it was seen, just not by him or his obvious mentoring influence, Robert Trent Jones.

It used to be a 2.5 but after the renovations it’s about like Needwood – a 4.5.