Westfields

Many professional golf Hall of Famers with design credentials have implemented plans near the American capital, and Fred Couples is one of the less heralded among that group. His work at the Westfields Golf Club is noted for being unattached to other real estate developments as part of its Audubon certification.

Although not the longest public course in the region by any stretch (a mild 6,900 yards from the back tees), the course opted for a more dramatic title for its back tees: “Boom Boom” evokes the city’s celebrated Independence Day celebration and Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” (those looking for the factual, less metaphorical namesake can look to Couples...the architect came up with the name himself). The course itself does not evoke such sensationalist design, but rather takes a straightforward approach to risk-reward golfing. Couples’s chosen bunker aesthetic means that the sand hazards will always seem to reach for errant balls with their fingerlike projections.

Both the region and the nation’s history are tied to the property as well; the American Civil War raged not too far outside of Washington D.C., and a burial site for soldiers on both sides of the conflict is featured off of the No. 13 fairway.