Redgate

Year Opened: 1974

Architect: Thurman Donovan

Web: www.redgategolf.com

Phone: (240)314-8730

After chopping and hacking about on the easier courses around DC, my boy decided to take me to Redgate for my first proper test of golf. Even the entrance to the course was pretty special, like going from lowdown White Castle to mid-scale Hamburger Hamlet (my editor, should I ever meet up with such a mythical being, might want to..what is it, blue pencil this or something?) – the wooden semi-rustic (what else) red gate as you enter the facility, the embedded rock-mosaic Redgate sign in the hillside as the driveway curves around the par 3 sixth hole and the tee box of #7 to the narrow shady parking lot. I recall the conditions – the closely mown tee boxes and greens, the distinct fairways and the sculpted sand bunkers – this was an obvious upgrade from what I’d been working with so far. I recall being genuinely jazzed, back when stepping onto a golf course for the first time really got me keyed up. Even the scorecard was cool at the time, with nifty diagrams and tips on playing the hole. Man, was I a greenhorn, not like now when I’m a jaded all-knowing…older sort of..uh...been around the block-head. But before I go completely over-the-top with the gushing, this is Rockville’s municipal course and Rockville, as in REM’s 1984 single “(Don’t go back to) Rockville”, is the poor, dull, gap-toothed, stupid cousin of posh Bethesda, which in turn is the bland, boring, untalented but hard-working and well-mannered step-child of every edgy, cool urban city in the States.

I enjoy the putting and chipping green by the 10th tee, which has a good amount of undulation and is large enough to attempt a variety of putts and chips without being a nuisance to others on the green. There’s a practice bunker by the irons-only mat driving range but I have never ventured over there, preferring to work on my short game rather than scuffing around on the worn-out plastic mats.

There’s one annoying ritual here at Redgate – the starter’s requirement that you show a green-repair tool, sure, like I’m peppering the greens with majestic approach shots. Once this little bit of housekeeping is taken care of, it’s off to the first tee and the downhill tee shot. Back before I really had any semblance of a golf swing I had a pretty untamed lefty slice and the parking lot left of the first hole was right in my wheelhouse and though the hole has a high net fence protecting the parking lot, it wasn’t enough to contain some of my errant drives and then we’d close our eyes and cringe, waiting for the crash into the glass or metal/plastic of the cars in the lot. It’s no way to start your round, let me tell you, but at least now I know where to park with some assurance that my car won’t get pummeled by golf balls, though truth be told, I don’t think my 1993 Corolla would look much worse for the experience.

As you continue your round, you will face a variety of challenges – elevation changes, ponds, creeks, forced carries over ravines and some blind shots to unseen targets. (I guess that’s what a blind shot is, now, isn’t it).

Unfortunately, there’s always a jam-up on the second hole because it’s a 3-par, a nice one, a 160-yarder downhill to a kidney-shaped green with a creek in front and bunkers back and a pretty severe forward sloping green. The 4th used to really intrigue me, a short par 5 with ponds awaiting the downhill tee shot long and left. The second shot is over the pond but you can’t drift too far right or trees will block your semi-blind approach to a lovely downhill green nestled in a hillside and fronted by a creek. Purists complain that one shouldn’t have to lay-up on a par 5 (the pond on the tee shot is merely 220 yards away) but for me it’s a non-issue.

#8 and #9 are testy long pain-in the-ass tree-lined par 4’s that I couldn’t reach in regulation in the best of circumstances. The best chance for a birdie are holes 5 and 6. The sixth is a short par 3 with a deep bunker front right which needs to be carried, and usually is. On the back side, the standouts are 13, 16 and 18. The 13th is a nice par 4, with OB left and a stand of trees down in the lowland which block your approach to the large downhill green. Anything long and you have a difficult bunker shot as the green slopes severely from back to front. Lots of 3-putts here if you find yourself above the hole. 16 is a cool par 5 where you tee off from a chute of trees and need to hit it long and straight to give yourself a reasonable second over two ponds way down the hill. Then it’s a short iron straight up hill to a blind green with bunkers left and a steep fall-off right. Big hitters can carry the ravine and leave themselves a short chip to the hole. The closing hole is a long par 4, featuring a short-carry pond off the tee, with bunkers right of the fairway and then a small pond front left of the green, along with a series of small bunkers to the right of the putting surface. I usually have to lay up because I don’t catch my drive but this is a strong closing hole. Best chances for birdie on the back side are 11, a very short downhill par 4 with lots of room left and 14, a short par 5 off a cliff, where the drive is the key. Put it in the fairway even 210 yards out and you are a cinch to knock it on the green, which like most of the greens here, has some pretty severe undulation.

This course has deeply personal cachet for me. Maybe deeply personal is a bit of hyperbole – any golf course having this much spiritual effect on me would seem to make me appear a bit shallow (or even slightly unhinged) - but years ago I spent 28 days in the county drug and alcohol treatment center across the street (a place that has as much in common with the Betty Ford Center as a Civil War medic does with the Mayo Clinic) and one of the rare rays of light in a bleak and depressing time was being able to look out the cafeteria window while queuing up for some fried foodsticks with a side of canned greens and check out the 14th hole. It kept me going, no question. Some would say love of family and friends and belief in a Higher Power gave them hope; for me it was gazing out at a short, easy, kind of bullshit par 5.

Because I played here so often in my early days, this track gets a lot of props from me. It’s in nice condition, it’s a fun lay-out and a good test and it’s a great value. So I give it a 7. Maybe that’s a half point too high because of length (it’s only 6200 from the tips), and there are a few throwaway holes, notably 15, a short par 3 flanked by an ugly cell phone tower. Perhaps years from now cell phone towers will have a quaint nostalgic appeal, the way we now feel about windmills and silos and Civil War cannons, but at present a soaring spiny metallic monstrosity is all it is.