Field Notes: Falls Road

I don't usually play two days in a row, but a friend ordered me out with her husband, and I'm not one to let people down.

This is the time to golf the mid-Atlantic, folks. The weather isn't oppressive, we've had enough rain to keep everything green, and the public courses haven't been beaten to death by, well, us.

Falls Road in Potomac, Maryland has completed renovations that took a few years and had temporarily created some bizarre makeshift holes. No more. Now the only flaw to my eye is the strange par-3 9, an odd way to finish the front and one of the course's least interesting holes. It's 127 from the blues (black/blue/silver/green, and who the heck thought that up). Don't judge the rest of Falls Road based on that hole--maybe they're trying to cheer people up with an easy score before they make the turn.

The course is hilly, though by no means to the local extreme of places like Forest Greens in Triangle, Va. or Little Bennett in Clarksburg, Md. Plenty of variety including tees where you can wail away with your driver and others where you shouldn't. The photo is taken from the middle of the 10th's fairway. Yes, as you're making your way around you can often see plenty of other holes, but they rarely impinge on each other and a normal public golfer won't feel crowded.

As documented at FairwayFiles.com, not a terrible day for yours truly with a 102. Avert your eyes from the closing three.