Capital Area Golf Membership and other munis in DC/NoVa area

[stevienova]

Hi all,

 

As you can see I'm new to the forum and am happy to find Golf WRX. This place is very active and a great resource on many levels.

 

I've been living in the DC/NoVa area since college (10 years now), but just recently as of 2 months ago have finally decided to get serious and get back into the game. I was a pretty competitive junior (scratch sophomore, junior and senior year, captain of our school team, tons of AJGA events). Long story on why I suddenly gave up the game which isn't necessary for this post. My original goal when getting back into the game was to find an actual club to join, unfortunately, after plenty of research around my area (Arlington, Fairfax, etc.) and plenty of membership requests and phone calls, I found myself realizing that most of these clubs want $25,000+ for initiation (Army Navy, International, Belle Haven, to name a few). Monthly dues were all affordable at around $250-$300ish. The only one that I found affordable for initiation fee was Country Club of Fairfax (which I'm still considering).

 

To my question. Has anyone in the DC metro area have or know anything about the Capital Area Golf Membership and if it's worth it? Here's an example using 1757 Golf Club (7 day) which I'm actually playing on Friday.

 

My main goals are:

- unlimited practice on grass tees (except winter, I realize that's a stretch.)

- course(s) with a good short game facility

- not have to pay to play each time

- no more than a 45 minute drive outside of downtown Arlington

 

I feel as though that's what this membership offers, but with the benefit of 8 different tracks to play (although most are quite a drive vs. staying in the NoVa area). Since I've been out of the game for the better part of a decade, I'm just not that knowledgable yet on the golf scene in the DC/NoVa area even though I've been living here for that long.

 

Any links, resources would be great and thanks!

[Carolina Golfer 2]

First welcome to the site and secondly welcome to the DC/Baltimore metro area. well not to the area but to the golf scene of the area.


The CAG Membership is a really good deal, and the company Billy Casper Golf runs some very good courses in the area. 1757 is a unique course and you will find a lot about it on this site. Just search the title 1757 and you fill find several threads dedicated to it. Mostly about it's outstanding practice facility, but about the course as well.

Also there are two other threads you may want to check out, the first one is an ongoing thread for playing partners and general golf talk in the DC/Nova area primarily.

[url="http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/483215-dcmdva-tee-times-playing-partners-club-fitting-etc/page__hl__%20dc%20%20area%20%20tee%20%20times"]http://www.golfwrx.c...rea tee times[/url]

The other one is the 450 page Maryland Golfers/DC NoVA golfer thread. Lots of talk in there about Maryalnd area courses and we have some very good NOVA members who chime in there all the time as well.

Warning there is a lot of non golf talk and hilairity that goes on as well...which isn't the worst thing in the world.

[url="http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/462734-maryland-golfersvirginia-and-dc-golfers/page__hl__%20maryland%20%20golfers"]http://www.golfwrx.c...ryland golfers[/url]

Memberships are great, and as you have found out a lot of the clubs in the area are priced for the elite and rich of the area. But there are also a lot of really good clubs that are affordable as well. you'll read and here a lot about those.

But there are so many great public courses in the area, you may just want to take a year or so and play a lot of them before committing to one club for good.

Feel free to join either of the other threads and ask for advice, that's one thing we're all full of

[stevienova]

Regarding playing a lot of the public tracks and then committing, I think that's exactly what I'm going to do.

The most important part at this stage of my game is a great practice facility. Sure, one of the best ways make your game better, is to actually play, but I was brought up with the "perfect practice" mentality and it was something I did a lot.

Awesome. Thanks so much Carolina Golfer!

[Carolina Golfer 2]

You're welcome. Sounds like the CAG membership would be ideal for you. There are not too many better practice facilities in the area than 1757.

Don't sleep on Blue Mash in Olney (md) a bit of a trek for you but an all grass range, practice bunkers and huge putting green. And oh yeah the course is one of my top 5-10 in the entire area as well. An Arthur Hills design that quite possibly the toughest opening 3 holes in rhe entire region.