The Potomac Shores Golf Club (since 2014) in Dumfries, VA. (Just 30 minutes south of Washington, D.C.), is the first public Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course in the Washington, D.C., metro area.
The club’s golf course is a par-72 layout that offers four sets of tees, with a total distance ranging from 5,389 to 7,156 yards. The course is located within a 1,920-acre Potomac Shores master-planned community in Prince William County, Virginia.
Potomac Shores Golf Club recently completed a multi-phase course enhancement project, which included re-grassing fairways and bunker renovations.
Actually, it was a two-phase enhancement project:
- The first phase focusing on returfing the current bentgrass fairways with Latitude 36 bermudagrass. It was completed in September 2018.
- The second phase focused on the course’s bunkers. It involved eliminating and renovating bunkers.
The total number of bunkers decreased from 77 to 74, while the total square footage of bunkers was reduced by 40 percent, from approximately 103,000 square feet to approximately 63,000 square feet.
Chad Goetz from Nicklaus Design and Troon’s agronomy team led the 10-month project with Southeastern Golf construction company serving as the contractor.
Chad Goetz, design associate, Nicklaus Design said:
Combined with the Capillary Concrete liner system, the bunkers should weather heavy rain events better and have reduced contamination.
While several bunkers were eliminated in this project, a handful of previously eliminated bunkers were re-installed to restore Jack’s original design intent.
Finally, several deep bunkers were shallowed out in order to make the course more enjoyable for its daily fee clientele. All of this was done while preserving Jack’s original design intent and strategies.
As I said above the Potomac Shores Golf Club opened for daily-fee play in May 2014. Very soon they were able to collect some major accolades among them:
- one of the “Best New Courses” in the U.S. by Golf Digest and GOLF Magazine;
- currently, it is ranked among the “Top Courses You Can Play” in Virginia by Golfweek magazine.