Atlantic Golf - South River Course
By Bob Enzel

There are three courses under Atlantic Golf. Two of them, Queenstown and South River are situated on the Eastern Shore not far from Annapolis. The Potomac Ridge course is just outside the Beltway in Waldorf, MD.

All are considered excellent public courses, but South River was recently mentioned in the “Baltimore Business Journal” as #13 out of the twenty most difficult golf courses in the Baltimore area.* It has also been ranked as the #3 Best Public Course in Maryland by Golf Digest 1999-2000; 2001-2002 and given a 4 ½ star rating by Golf Digest.

My friend John Urciolo (one of the sponsors) invited me to play in Galway Bay’s 8th Annual Golf Tournament put on by the Galway brothers, Fintan and Michael. They are owners of a local Annapolis pub or two and are responsible for the myriad of tournament details. It was a charitable event “in aid of Father Alphie Byrne.” Father Byne is a missionary who for forty years has been helping the less fortunate in Malawi. The tournament has become a major local event and raises over ten thousand dollars annually.

The South River course at its longest is 6,723 yards (green) down to 4,935 (white) yards. We played the Blue which was 6,235 yards with a slope/rating of 127/69.4. Brian Ault, the course architect did a fine job with fairway sand traps, ponds and environmental areas which made the course challenging with some tricky holes.

The little booklet that golf courses now sell—which I hate to buy but sometimes do—was very helpful in knowing which club to use and where to aim the shot. This being my first outing on this course it came in helpful. The hole that gave our group the most trouble was #9, a par four. The green is well-protected by water, sand and brush. It’s listed as the 6th most difficult handicap hole, but for us it was number one. . Best Ball low score for the tournament was 57 so bring your best players if you want to compete. Our team was only able to shoot just over par.

Overall, I found it to be a terrific course and am looking forward to returning to test my skill without the benefit of my three “best ball” partners. In fact, I’ve put all 3 Atlantic Golf Courses on my next season’s must play list.

The web site for Atlantic Golf and South River can be found on: http://www.mdgolf.com/

*A complete Most Difficult list may be had by calling 410/576-1161.