On the Horizon
By John Holmes
Special to The Washington Post
The owners of the next wave of facilities are busily planning their grand openings. The vagaries of construction and weather make specific debut dates difficult to pin down too far in advance, but here is a sneak peek at some promising new area courses.
Forest Greens Golf Club
Triangle
Forest Greens, one of two new playgrounds developed simultaneously by the Prince William County Park Authority, is set to open nine holes in May and another nine in June. The 6,831-yard, par-27 layout, set on 350 acres of rolling terrain near Quantico and Prince William Forest Park, is the work of Clyde Johnston, famed for some of the Carolinas' best courses. With five sets of tees, it should be playable for all levels of golfers. Forest Greens will also have a clubhouse, dining facilities and an awesome three-tiered driving range, the area's largest. Call 703/221/2609.
Manassas Park Public Golf Course
Manassas
Manassas Park is Forest Greens' sibling, and is set to open at least nine holes by midsummer. Surrounded by stands of hardwood and punctuated by dramatic elevation changes and natural rock outcroppings, the 6,800-yard, par-72 course feels like it belongs in the mountains. Along with a clubhouse, it will offer a teaching academy complete with its own three-hole practice course. Call 703/335-0777.
Raspberry Plain Golf & Hunt Club
Leesburg
The most eagerly awaited new area course has got to be this Gary Player creation a few miles north of Leesburg. The superstar golfer's two other mid-Atlantic courses, Hawthorne Valley in the West Virginia mountains and River Run on Maryland's Eastern Shore, already rank among the region's most memorable. Player has designed Raspberry Plain with a Scottish flavor. Tentative opening date is the fall. Call 703/779-9627.
The Links at Challedon
Mount Airy, Md.
May is the targeted opening for this new Brian Ault design in southern Carroll County. The 6,645-yard, par-72 daily-fee course on rolling farmland also will have a large practice facility and full-service clubhouse. Call 301/829-3000.
South River Golf Links
Edgewater, Md.
The Birney family, which created and owns the ever-popular Queenstown Harbor complex just across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from Annapolis, is behind South River as well. Kensington-based architect Tom Clark has plotted the course over the rolling landscape just south of Annapolis, so this one will differ from the flat, riverside courses ant Queenstown. But it should be just as much fun when it opens this summer. Call 410/798-5865.
Southview Golf Course
Accokeek
You don't have to wait to play Southview. It just opened and is the closest of the new courses to downtown Washington. Tom Clark also designed this 6,505-yard, par-72 course, which rambles through the trees and up and over the easily sloping southern Prince George's County countryside near Waldorf. Cal 301/372-1112.
Timbers at Troy Ridge
Elkridge
Howard County's first public golf course will open right off the junction of I-95 and Route 100, with the first nine set to debut this summer and the back nine set to open this fall. The par-72 course will measure 6,700 yards from the back tees, and will play through the thick woods and three streams that populate this 206-acre parcel, whose elevation rises and falls as much as 150 feet in some areas. Its design is by Ken Killian, best known here for the lovely Bristow Manor. Call 410/313-4700.
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