As part of the annual Global Traveler/Trazee Travel employee conference, four of us traveled to Northern Virginia the night before the event to prepare for a round at Potomac Shores Golf Club. Planning was meticulous—two of the team (myself and staff photographer and GT Advisory Board member “Yammi” Chris Ottaunick) played a warm-up round in Philadelphia before heading south, another navigated heavy I-95 traffic (Jeff Sohinki, GT’s director of sales and marketing), and the fourth flew nearly 3,000 miles from California to Virginia (Rory Oldham, GT account manager). As the saying goes, battles are won before they are fought.
Designed by Jack Nicklaus, the course sits on a scenic waterfront overlooking the Potomac River. Potomac Shores is both beautiful and demanding, requiring careful club selection as native hardwoods and dense Virginia vegetation frame many holes. The layout winds across a peninsula, threading through wetlands, rolling terrain and alongside Powell’s Creek.
Recently the course added a new clubhouse inspired by Georgian plantation architecture. The Tidewater Grill serves breakfast, lunch and dinner in a refined setting. Our whole team—golfers and non-golfers alike—enjoyed a specially prepared dinner of pan-seared crab cakes and 18-hour braised short ribs, finishing with a blackberry chocolate flan. It was a memorable start to our annual conference.
Potomac Shores also offers an excellent practice facility popular with locals. We spent a solid 45 minutes there warming up and preparing to tackle the course.
HOLE 2 | 405 yards, par 4
From the tee this hole makes an immediate impression. Yammi and I hit drives that settled in the center of the fairway, roughly 70 yards short of the deep ravine that cuts across the hole. The safe play would have been an easy iron, but both of us flirted with danger and pushed slightly wide, narrowly clearing the ravine. Jeff and Rory struggled—one lost his ball left and another’s found the ravine and stayed there. Yammi and I salvaged bogeys with a chip and a putt while the others preferred to move on.
HOLE 4 | 225 yards, par 3
This is an attractive par 3 set at a higher elevation with the green below. I committed to the shot and found the left side of the green to the team’s approval, two-putting for a solid par. The green is guarded by bunkers—two protecting the right front and two at the back for those who over-hit the green. Rory and Yammi came up a bit short but managed respectable chips and each carded a four. Jeff spent more time than expected exploring the woods.
Hole 7 © FRANCIS X. GALLAGHER
HOLE 7 | 435 yards, par 4
Ranked the toughest hole at Potomac Shores, Hole 7 humbled us all. The fairway is narrow with a landing area that tilts drives toward the native forest. From an elevated tee the hole appears straightforward, but two fairway bunkers on the left caught me, and the uphill approach can leave even well-struck irons short. Additional bunkers on the left guard the green and penalize those who come up short on club selection.
HOLE 10 | 575 yards, par 5
Hole 10, the No. 2 handicap on the course, is long and strategic. You must drive to the hilltop, then hit down to a turning fairway and finish toward a green protected by three trees set out front. My tee shot found a right-side bunker, costing a stroke to get back into play. My third shot cleared the trees but left me short of the green. Rory played the hole brilliantly, reaching the green in four and draining a one-putt par. Jeff leaned on mulligans and felt the pressure on this punishing stretch.
HOLE 17 | 410 yards, par 4
Hole 17 was entertaining, especially watching drives carry off the tee. A retention pond sits to the right of the fairway and, although it shouldn’t be a main factor, its presence affected our minds—and several shots. Rory found the water, Jeff launched a drive we never recovered, and my tee ball drifted left toward thick brush. Yammi stuck to his reliable draw, finding position to attack the green while avoiding fairway bunkers. He carded a par, I a bogey, and Jeff and Rory ended with double bogeys.
HOLE 18 | 405 yards, par 4
A classic finishing hole from Nicklaus, 18 feels like a homecoming with the clubhouse completed behind it. This dogleg right from an elevated tee calls for an aim just right of the American flag flying by the clubhouse. Some teammates took a straighter line and lost their balls in tall fescue on the far side; Yammi and I struck two of our better drives, leaving ourselves chances for a par and even a birdie. I settled for par to close out the round.
POTOMAC SHORES GOLF CLUB
1750 Dunnington Place
Potomac Shores, VA 22026
tel 571 383 3050
potomacshoresgolfclub.com