Renditions Golf Course — Local services in Bowie

Absolutely and unequivocally the worst course maintenance I have seen in years. More rocks than sand in the sand traps, putting clubs at risk for serious damage. Unbelievably inconsistent greens with a mix of hard and dry, soft and muddy, and varying grass lengths. Fairways even more inconsistent than greens, with grass length nicely groomed in some places and completely uncut and rivalling the first cut of rough in other places, all on the same hole. Within a 24 inch radius and within 5 feet of the fairway, one will find bare ground, severe tire marks, 4 inch long grass, and standard 1 inch rough. Similar story will happen around the greens, with some of our balls being lost in the rough only three or four feet off the green. Speaking to the rough again, 4 inches of rough in the first cut, only 12 inches off the fairway, is completely unreasonable for the average golfer. Many tee shots are blind, and the cart path winds in and out around woods and water hazards. You can't see where your ball is landing from the tee, and you can't see your ball even if you were walking within 3 or 4 feet of it, because it's completely buried under 4 inches of rough. Being penalized as if it were out of bounds or a water hazard for missing the fairway by only a couple of feet is not reasonable. There are no yardage markers of any kind anywhere on the course. Though the carts have GPS, they are no good when the course is cart path only, as was the case this past weekend. Further, the cart path may be a long ways from the fairway and green in many cases. One is better off walking if it weren't for the several hundred yards between green and tee on many holes. There are no ball or club cleaners anywhere on the course. The course seems to be built on a swamp, so ball and club cleaners are needed at every tee AND every green. There is no cart refreshments, such as water and Gatorade. There is a only a cafe on three holes. Fill up there or go without. Nobody is driving around to offer a cold water or sports drink. Ball striking needs to be exceptionally good. The ground is far too soft so should you incidentally hit the ground even a small fraction behind the ball, the club will "shovel" rather than "bounce," making an otherwise minor mis-hit much, much worse. Pace of play is not even remotely acceptable. We were just over 5.5 hours. Despite a course marshal running up and down the course every two to three holes, and despite digital warnings on the carts indicating when a group is behind pace. Pace of play is simply not remotely enforced, encouraged, or considered. The marshal is there for appearances only, and not even attempting to perform a meaningful role on the course. Ground under repair on many holes. And not small little areas. Major sections of the fairway are marked off for ground under repair, in some cases circles as large as 20 yard radius, or similarly sized squares and rectangles.

The course attendants blame the weather. Though there had been some weather earlier in the week, it had been at least three or four days since the last rain. The course simply lacks reasonable drainage and no course maintenance is being done to compensate. From our perspective, the course has simply been "let-go."

On it's best day, I suspect this is a $60 to $70 course, though they like to pretend to be "country club" quality and charge accordingly. When it's been let-go as badly as this one was, they should have been charging just enough to break even on the day - perhaps $35 to $45. It's a shame really, because it's an amazing layout with amazing features. It was probably a really enjoyable and challenging course once upon a time.

This course is purely a novelty today and not a reasonable place to play regularly. I've done it once and checked that box. There are probably 50 public courses in the greater DC area. I will not be back...

If you live in the DC/MD/VA area, I would not recommend playing this course, not for the cost. The folks outside checking your bags in are always friendly, but the staff inside taking payments, were rude, and could not be bothered to assist in any way. Similarly, there is absolutely NO policing of the course at all by any kind of ranger. I played as a single and I could hear the music from the cart in the group in front of me when I was on the teebox and they were in the fairway.

Conditions - Holy smokes. See photos. This course is in the worst condition of any course I have ever seen that is almost $100 for a peak round. See attached photos to judge for yourself. Photos are starting at hole 1, you can tell the grounds crew has just given up on this course. There are probably 3 different kinds of grass on/around the green itself, including weeds. The center of the green looks like it required a major repair, and is potted with holes and patches of dirt. The second green has an enormous patch of dirt right in the center of the green (see photo 2), and has weeds growing up onto the green on the right hand side. Hole 9, third picture here, I hit my drive into the center of the fairway, which as you can tell, is literally mud with some patches of grass...not the other way around. I moved my ball into the rough on the right hand side just to find a patch of grass to play from. And while this hole is "Cart Path Only" - again - NO rangers policing any policies, so the group in front of us was just driving on the fairway in reverse, presumably because the cart GPS slowed them down when in the forward position.

This course used to be gorgeous, and in the last 3-5 years, it has become unplayable. If I was the owner, I'd completely start over. But, since this course is one of the very few public courses in this area, it is highly trafficked, so what do they care if they fix it or not? People are still paying to play no matter...

Cool concept but poor execution. Took a 2.5 hour drive from Philly to play this course on 7/23 and I can't say that it was worth it or that I'd do it again. When looking at pictures of the course, you get so hype to play these replica holes from great courses around the country. When you get there it is VERY underwhelming. The pictures that are on the web do NOT reflect the current conditions at all! Sure, playing Amen corner was really cool and those 3 holes were in great shape but the rest of the course was not. Tee boxes and fairways were great! The greens, they were an afterthought. Most of them looked like they just survived a golf ball sized hail storm. I know that the course isn't directly responsible for fixing pitch marks on the greens but you almost have to assume that 4/5 golfers are not going to fix them. There were more than enough staff standing around doing nothing to have someone go out once or twice a day to fix them. The bunkers? ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE! Most of them didn't have any sand in them, more like dried dirt! The church pew hole from Oakmont had church pew bunkers but instead of white sand filling them, they were filled with dirt and weeds, not a grain of sand to be had in there. I thought most of the holes were "loosely based" on iconic holes and not replicas. The 17th at Sawgrass, loosely based! The green was the size of a postage stamp and other than the left side where the pin was that day, the rest of the green was useless.

The staff there were nice but I didn't feel like they sold the place like other resort like courses would. We got the ol' "you ever play here before?" spiel but nothing after that. Nobody tried to "sell" us on how great the place was or how cool the layout was. I wouldn't drive more than 30 minutes to play this...