Would trust the opinions of @Golf_Hack. May also be worth checking in the Philly/PA roost pages. I think there’s some Delaware folks in there.
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Hello MD crew. I’m planning a buddies trip centered around OCMD and Rehoboth Beach, hopefully staying in the Bethany Beach area for accessibility to both for this June. Wanted to canvas those in the know for any potential recommendations. Currently looking at:
Rehoboth Beach Country Club (through a contact, not definite to get on but hopefully)
Lighthouse Sound
Beartrap Dunes
Baywood Greens
Bayside Resort
Let me know if I’m missing anything, especially any hidden gems that may not break the budget as much as some of these.
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Got to play Rum Pointe. Better than all those, particularly Lighthouse, which isn’t a golf course, it’s a collection of holes. (Some good, some shit.)
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A true man of the people. Thank you for the reply KVV, I have family in Baltimore and I still have retracing your Strapped steps on the back burner as well. Rum Pointe slotting in for Lighthouse.
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I second KVV on Rum Pointe. If you catch a day with solid wind some of those holes can blow you off the planet. A few years ago I played consecutive days there with high winds and had a 5 club difference on one of the par threes because of the wind shift.
Lighthouse is ho hum. For what you end up paying there it should be better. If you do end up there somehow you’ll at least get to see the longest cart bridge in America, so there’s that. I played Bayside once several years ago and enjoyed it but it won’t blow you away. It is very close to the northern end of Ocean City though, so lunch/dinner afterward would be very accessible.
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Any takes on Glen Riddle? There’s a spicy deal on Man O War / War Admiral / Rum Pointe if I can make the tee times work. Would be ideal for one of our days of 36 if we could be on one property like Glen Riddle.
Full disclosure: You might want to factor in your desire to drive. Bethany to Rum Pointe is about 40 mins. It’s probably only 30 mins to Lighthouse. But I think it’s worth it. It’s the rare public Pete Dye design.
Lighthouse can be … visually cool the first time you play it but … it’s way overpriced. And gimmicky. If your buddies are low caps, they’ll like it more than if they’re high caps. If they’re high caps, they might lose a dozen balls.
My friends and I did an Ocean City/Delaware trip for 10 years before it kind of grew stale.
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With the new information from this thread I’m looking at more of an OCMD focus now with one day of driving to Rehoboth if we get on there and just devoting the whole day to the full club experience.
I like War Admiral and absolutely hate Man O’War. MOW is a links course built in a housing development that doesn’t have run-up landing areas into greens. So you end up playing in the wind, trying to fly the ball onto links greens that have water on a bunch of holes. The conditioning is never as good as it should be. If I never play there again, I won’t mind one bit.
War Admiral is fine. Mostly surrounded by trees. No amazing holes, but not as many bad ones as MOW. A couple weird holes where you can’t hit driver off the tee, including kind of a gimmicky 18th hole where you have to hit 4-iron, then 7-iron (over swamp) into a green surrounded by swamp.
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Ugh wishing I could walk back making some of my more budget conscious compadres aware of this deal…gonna be tough putting that cat back in the bag 
Might be a worthwhile compromise for getting to Rum Pointe though. Appreciate your input.
Everything I’ve heard about RBCC has been top notch so if you get on there don’t pass it up. I’ll playing it later this year so I’ll have it better opinion on it then.
Personally speaking I like Lighthouse better then Rum; Rum for me is too easy but it’s still fantastic I just like the challenge of Lighthouse better.
BearTrap is good but it’s nothing special; it’s got some good holes but nothing to write home about; conditioning is solid.
Baywood is good but it’s overrated as fuck; without all the flowers it’s nothing special.
Bayside is alright (There is a Better Nicklaus 20 minutes away but it’s private). Has a number of awful golf holes plus the conditions were awful when I played it this year
Glen Riddle is good but War Admiral is more of a low-cap course IMO Man O’War is fine but there is better options
Ocean City (Newport Bay) and Eagles Landing are better then both Riddles, Baywood and BearTrap
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Rum is the best public track at the beach. It’s not really close. Usually wins as well. On the budget side of things, nutters crossing in salisbury is a fun course. Not right at the beach but good for stopping on the way down or headong out of town. Don’t miss rum point though. Lighthouse is okay. Not great. And for the price it’s ridiculous.
Bayside is fine but it’s Mr. Nicklaus Neighborhood. It lacks anything original. The course is good not spectacular, and it’s just exactly like 50% of the courses in Florida. Not memorable in any way.
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My issue with Bayside is you can’t book ahead they won’t allow visitors to book until a week out so haven’t played there is over a decade.
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Anyone played Rocky Gap out in western Md?
Trying to plan a spring golf outing with some buddies and naturally the planning has been going very poorly. May be resorting to a 1 night, two rounds stay and play since everyone is within an hour or two distance wise and finding 3/4 day weekend dates that everyone could do has been difficult.
Wondering if anyone can speak to the golf/casino/food/amenities there?
Sorry - late to this. If you can get on Rehoboth Beach CC, definitely do it. Agree with @KVV - Rum Pointe is an awesome test and Lighthouse is just OK. I would also drop Bear Trap Dunes and replace it with Peninsula outside of Rehoboth Beach. Bear Trap is meh - overly wet most times and not very exciting. Peninsula is a tough test. If a Nicklaus course is an issue, note that both Bayside and Peninsula are “Jack” courses.
Definitely agree about Baywood being overrated, but they just put in a new nine. Haven’t had a chance to play that yet, so not sure if it adds anything new or is just more of the same.
Hey man - I can’t speak to Rocky Gap in particular, don’t make it that part of the state often and haven’t heard much about that resort in general. However, if you and friends are open to an AirBnb style weekend, there are several GREAT courses near the Frederick/Hagerstown which is not far from the area. Worthington Manor, Whiskey Creek, PB Dye, Musket Ridge, MD National just to name a few. Some fun breweries, restaurants in Frederick.
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That “new nine” has been there for the better part of 8 years and is only 6 holes.
As far I know it’s never going to open at least not for the Foreseeable future
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a true if you know, you know situation
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Maybe you can invite an Elkridge member to your house for crabs.
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