Old Hickory Golf Club

The tee time I booked with golfnow was not honored at the course. It was for 6:45 am they do not open until 7:30 am at which time it is members only. Thank goodness to one of the members that was there waiting to play explained all this to me. Waste of time.

I have read a lot of negative press about this course in recent years, but I wanted to go check it out for myself. I saw a Hot Deal time on a Sunday late morning for $70, so I decided to book it and go play.

I showed up to the course to find out there was a tournament happening the same day. While annoying, the staff was very gracious about it and gave me a BOGO pass to come back for the inconvenience. The staff was generally pretty great and helped make up for the trouble.

...and that great staff was unfortunately let down by the course conditions. Despite the tournament announcer saying the course was in "the best condition it has seen for months," the conditions were pretty mediocre. The driving range (which is length limited and required hitting driver into a close net) was in pretty rough shape with terrible mats and mostly broken golf balls. While the tee boxes and fairways were in pretty decent shape, the green were a wreck with pitch marks and leaves everywhere. I understand that a course can only do so much, but the prices I have seen at this course (although they do appear to be coming down) don't justify the condition. This is especially unfortunately as you can see the bones of a really nice course here.

Overall, Old Hickory isn't quite as bad as you might see in other social media feeds, but it still isn't worthy of the price versus other courses in the area.

My first time here & it was great! The course was challenging but not over the top!
My only complaint are the red tee boxes. They were terrible.
Otherwise I’d have given all 5s!

Course is not in good shape. Poor fairways and tee boxes. I hope it comes back to what I remember. Do not waste your money. You will be disappointed.

Course was not in good shape. No grass on tee boxes. Bunkers in terrible condition. Poor signage for driving range.

Tees - very weedy with lots of bare areas. Very few tees that had smooth grass areas. The WORST tee boxes I’ve ever played.

Fairways - also very weedy with many bare spots.

Greens - also very weedy with soooooo many ball divots, the most on any course I’ve ever played.

I got a hot deal for $60… a discounted rate. After playing, I wouldn’t have played here for $30. The ONLY nice thing about Old Hickory is the staff, they are absolutely phenomenal and I feel terrible that they have to go to work everyday at arguably the worst course in Northern VA. Fairway? What fairway? This place would be perfect for a Round Up weed killer commercial. The tee boxes were comprised of crab grass and dirt. The greens were a consistent speed but had holes and the cup… whoever punches the holes ought to be fired. Mounds right at the hole costed me a few strokes. The driving range is in about as good of shape as an AA attendee. Had I went to the course and paid, I would’ve been in after 9 begging for a refund. This place needs help and lots of it.

Overall nice course. No starter out there this morning. Driving range is best up so don’t plan on having a meaningful warm up. Overall not bad

I recently played at Old Hickory GC (8/3/2024) and unfortunately, my experience was quite disappointing.
Course Conditions: The overall condition of the course was below average. Many tee boxes were poorly maintained, resembling sand traps with little to no grass. Additionally, some rough areas were excessively tall and clearly neglected. I lost two Pro V1 balls just a few feet from the fairways, and the left rough on hole 9 was particularly bad.
Staff Interaction: My encounter with a course maintenance worker added to my frustration. At hole 8, my ball was in the middle of the fairway when a staff member yelled at me to "get out of the fairway." When I approached him, he explained that due to high temperatures (over 90 degrees), the course had switched to a cart path-only policy after 1 PM. However, it was only 12:55 PM at the time, and no one had informed us about this potential policy change when we checked in at the clubhouse or at the first tee.
Tournament Discrepancies: To make matters worse, there was a golf tournament taking place that day. While tournament players were allowed to use golf carts on the fairways, we were left to walk, which felt quite unfair.
In summary, I cannot recommend this course and will not return for several years unless significant improvements are made. For the price, there are much better-maintained public courses in the NOVA area that also feature friendlier staff.