Pine Ridge Golf Course

Awesome course, the gem of all the Baltimore Municipal Courses, just play here during the fall and you will see why with deer a plenty that lay right out in front of you while you are teeing off. Very surreal experience, I do not remember every round of golf I have played but I will always remember this one.

Quite simply one of the best public courses I've played because of fine conditioning, lay-out, and price and not just because I played my all-time low scoring round there this winter. If you like your driver and happen to hit a draw with it you'll especially love this place. The fairways are fairly wide and welcoming and the greens are inviting, too -- large and usually flat. No tricks here just honest, straight golf. The first three holes are tough, longish par 4s and then you get a 170 yd. par 3 with an elevated tee -- a must par. #5 is a very wide but tough par 5 at nearly 600 yds that doglegs left. You can hit two big shots and still have a healthy iron left to a narrow two-tiered green -- maybe the toughest par on the course. Although the fairways are wide and usually fast on this course the woods or the lake along most holes can trap a wild shot and beat up your scorecard in a hurry. In a sense the course's wide fairways giveth but woods then taketh away. For example, you can hit a solid, great-looking drive but end up blowing it through the fairway on a dogleg and right into a dead zone. You must chip out because I already know what happens to you when you don't. The par 3s are great. Besides #4, #8 looks intimidating at 175 yds from elevated tee to elevated green all carry over water to a severe two-tiered green. #14 looks good from the tee to 175 yds over water and #17 is also off an elevated tee at 156 yds. Two, perhaps three of the par 5s can be reached in two. #12 and #18 are beauties from the fairway and should be parred. There's some talk that nearby Mt. Pleasant (ranked 12th nationally by a golf magazine) is a better course than Pine Ridge. I say not.

Loved the course so much I played it 4 times during the 5 days I was in town. Simply outstanding!