Oak Tree (West)

Located directly opposite Oak Tree National, Oak Tree Country Club opened for business just a couple of years after its near neighbour debuted in 1976. The West course was unveiled in 1978 and it’s a little shorter and bit less demanding than the East course which followed four years later.

Both courses are Pete and Alice Dye designs – the layout at Oak Tree National is a Pete Dye solo creation – but they’re a good deal more forgiving than the tournament-standard track next door which was built to host national championships like the US Amateur in 1984 and the PGA Championship in 1988.

Oak Tree Country Club was the first residential development for Landmark Land when it was formed in the mid-1970s and Pete Dye would go to build more than a dozen other golf courses for the company during an association that lasted into the new millennium.

Joel Zuckerman’s “Pete Dye Golf Courses: Fifty Years of Visionary Design” had this to say to say about the West course:

“With the exception of a couple of tree-lined par fours early on the inward nine, the driving corridors are generous. But just like its immediate neighbour, it has a multitude of bunkering throughout, and Dye has made liberal use of periphery greenside mounding, so offline approaches will lead to awkward stances and angles toward the pin.

Water is less of a presence here than on the East course, but there are several shots sure to intimidate those with aquaphobia, the tee shot on the par three 14th being the most notable. Several of the greens have some serious contour, the par four 12th and 17th being the prime examples.”