Potomac Shores Golf Club

Potomac Shores Golf Club is the first publicly accessible Jack Nicklaus Signature design in the Washington DC metro area. Located 20 miles south of the city's "Capital Beltway", the course lies in a forested area, alongside the point where Powells Creek flows into the Potomac River. The golf club is the centrepiece for a master-planned community of residential housing.

This excellently crafted Nicklaus design expansively sweeps its way out-and-back through an attractive hardwood forest. Although lacking any holes that play directly alongside the creek or river, the roaming layout does incorporate many dramatic elevation changes. The holes are typically lined by tall mature hardwood trees, with wide playing corridors and testing green complexes.

This wouldn't be a Nicklaus layout without plenty of stylish bunkering along the fairways and around the greens, although unusually for the "Golden Bear", water is conspicuous by its absence. Housing is noticeable (and not entirely "out of range" of a sliced drive) alongside one or two holes, but most of the time you'll be playing through a pleasantly wooded environment.

Amongst an excellent collection of par-3s, the 13th is probably the toughest. Measuring 230-yards from the tips, the hole plays across a small vegetation-filled creek to a handsomely bunkered green. Long fescues and tall hardwoods provide the hole with its scenic backdrop. The par-4 2nd also presents a wetland area to be crossed in front of its green.