Thursday on the Tidal Basin

  Washington DC, District of Columbia, United States
Thursday, September 18, 2008

East Potomac #5

East Potomac #11

For today, I decided I wanted to golf in the District of Columbia.  There are 3 public courses within DC; Rock Creek, Langston and East Potomac.  The course du jour is East Potomac.  This course had not hosted any major golf event, was not designed by a well known designer and is not acclaimed in any golf magazine/book.  What the course does have going for it is its location within East Potomac Park, which contains the Jefferson Monument and Hains Point.  No matter how bad the golf course is...there is a distinct thrill playing golf within eye shot of the Washington and Jefferson Monument.  East Potomac Golf Complex consist of a regulation 18 hole course (Blue), 9 hole par-34 executive course (White) and 9 hole par 3 course (Red)...I think they even have a mini-golf layout for the kids.  Today, I am playing the Blue course but someday I wish to come back and play the White course.  The White course, located on the north end of the park, loops towards the Jefferson Monument.

As a typical municipal course, the conditions are bad with patchy fairway grass, inadequately filled (mud) sand bunkers and aerated, sandy greens.  I laughed when one of the guys in my foursome commented that the greens were in better condition this year.  Sometimes playing on greens in this condition is easier because you do not need to account for the break of the green on your putts...you just need to hit the putt hard enough to roll through the sand and accept the pinball action of the rolls.  I still managed to need only 34 putts for the loop.

East Potomac #4 (War College in background)

I had no noteworthy holes on the front nine (i.e. no pars).  I thought the view of the War College in Fort McNair from hole #4, picture worthy.  In spite of no pars, I did manage to play consistent bogey golf and carded a 49 on the front.  Brad one of the guys I played with had a meeting at 11 so he left at the turn and gave me his cart.  I normally enjoy walking especially on a nice cool fall morning, but there is no reason to look a gift horse in the mouth.

I had a spectacular start to the back nine on a short par 4 (302 yards).  I crushed my drive on the fairway to within 50 yards of the green.  After an easy quarter swing pitch with my gap wedge, I sank the birdie putt!  As a matter of fact, the foursome started the back nine on fire.  For the first four holes, someone managed to make a birdie.  That was the extent of my highlight for the back nine.  I managed to finish with a 50 for a total of 99 for the round.

Another problem you have to overcome when playing East Potomac is the constant distraction of airliners taking off from nearby Reagan National Airport.  On top of that, the helicopters (police, traffic and military) love flying low over the park especially the Marine One helicopters.  One awesome moment, we had a fly over by military jets coming out of Andrews Air Force base.  I do not know what the special occasion was but this was some kind of multi-service flight.  In the first formation of four, there was a Marine AV-8 Harrier, Navy F/A-18 Hornet, Air Force F-15 Eagle and F-22 Raptor (I think).  The other three airplanes must been flying with their speed brakes extended to allow the Harrier to stay in the Finger Four Formation.  This flight was followed by a two plane formation of a F/A-18 and F-15.  I wish I was fast enough to snap a picture.

After a quick lunch at the course's grill, I walked to the Capitol Mall.  Actually the lunch was not that quick, it took 1/2 hour for them to make a Philly Cheese-Steak...maybe they had to call for the recipe?