The
Congressional Country Club is a
country clubA country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...
and
golf courseA golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
in
BethesdaBethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
,
MarylandMaryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, USA. Congressional opened in 1924 and has hosted three
U.S. OpenThe United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
s and a
PGA ChampionshipThe PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...
, and is an annual stop on the
PGA TourThe PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
, with the
AT&T NationalThe AT&T National is a professional golf tournament held in the Washington D.C. area during the Fourth of July weekend. The PGA Tour event is hosted by Tiger Woods and benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. The first AT&T National was held July 5–8, 2007, at the Blue Course of the Congressional...
, hosted by
Tiger WoodsEldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
. The tournament was first played in 2007, and is held in early July. Congressional hosted the Kemper Open from 1980–86, until its move to nearby TPC at Avenel in 1987. While Avenel was under renovation in
2005-Men's professional golf:Major championships*7-10 April: Masters Tournament - Tiger Woods defeated fellow American Chris DiMarco at the first playoff hole to claim his 4th Masters title, and his 9th major. He temporarily returned to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings.*16-19 June: U.S...
, Congressional hosted the tournament, then known as the
Booz Allen ClassicThe Booz Allen Classic was a regular golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1968 to 2006.Perhaps more so than any other "regular" PGA Tour stop, the event wandered about, not just from course to course within a given metropolitan area, but along the East Coast...
. Congressional hosted its third U.S. Open in June 2011.
The courses
Congressional has two 18-hole golf courses: the flagship Blue Course and the Gold Course. The Blue Course was designed by Devereux Emmet and has been renovated over the years by numerous architects, most recently by
Rees JonesRees Jones is an American golf course architect.He was born in Montclair, New Jersey the son of legendary golf course designer Robert Trent Jones and the younger brother of golf course designer Robert Trent Jones, Jr...
. The course was included in the
LinksLinks was the name of a series of golf simulation computer games, first developed by Access Software, and then later by Microsoft Game Studios after Microsoft acquired Access Software. The line of golf games was a flagship brand for Access, and the series spanned several years: from 1990 to 2003...
series, and in 2011 is to be available for the Virtual Championship at
World Golf TourWorld Golf Tour ' is an online multiplayer virtual golf game. WGT is played virtually on actual golf courses from around the world, using a patented 3D photorealistic georeferencing technology....
.
Both courses are known for their rolling terrain, tree-lined fairways, and wide challenging greens. Water hazards also come into play on both courses.
Blue Course
The Blue Course has hosted all of the significant golf tournaments contested at Congressional. The course is often considered among the best 100 courses in the United States;
Golf DigestGolf Digest is a monthly golf magazine published by Condé Nast Publications in the United States. It is a generalist golf publication covering recreational golf and men's and women's competitive golf. Condé Nast Publications also publishes the more specialized , and Golf World Business. The...
ranked it 89th in its 2006 listing of the 100 Greatest Golf Courses. In 2007, Golf Digest ranked it 86th in America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses. The Blue Course has been redesigned by
Robert Trent JonesRobert Trent Jones, Sr. was a golf course architect who designed about 500 golf courses in at least 40 US states and 35 other countries all around the world...
in 1957 and
Rees JonesRees Jones is an American golf course architect.He was born in Montclair, New Jersey the son of legendary golf course designer Robert Trent Jones and the younger brother of golf course designer Robert Trent Jones, Jr...
twice, in 1989 and 2006. The course measures 7,250 yards from the back tees. It is a par 72 (but plays as a par 70 for all PGA tour events with holes 6 and 11 being played as par 4's) with a course and slope rating of 75.4/142.
Bent grassAgrostis is a genus of over 100 species belonging to the grass family Poaceae, commonly referred to as the bent grasses...
is used for the fairways and for the greens. Until renovated in 2009, Annual Bluegrass (
Poa annuaPoa annua, or annual meadow grass , is a widespread low-growing turfgrass in temperate climates. Though P. annua is commonly considered a solely annual plant due to its name, perennial bio-types do exist. 'Poa' is Greek for fodder. It is one of the sweetest grasses for green fodder, but less ...
) was used for the greens.
18th hole
The Blue Course was originally designed to finish on a par-three 18th hole, playing over the lake to a green that finished in a natural amphitheatre below the clubhouse. The
USGAThe United States Golf Association is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system...
has long held a dislike towards par-threes for finishing holes, as they are perceived as anticlimactic and (in most cases) do not require the player to hit an accurate tee-shot with a driver, which can sometimes be difficult to execute under the extreme pressure of a major championship.
In order to avoid such a conflict, the USGA has employed various course configurations over the years to allow tournaments to be played over the Blue Course without finishing on the par-three 18th. For the 1964
U.S. OpenThe United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
(and 1976
PGA ChampionshipThe PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...
), as well as for the Kemper Opens played in the 1980s, two holes from the adjoining Gold Course were inserted into the routing in order to allow the par-four 17th hole of the Blue Course (long considered the most demanding hole on the course) to be played as the 18th instead.
During the 1995
U.S. Senior OpenThe U.S. Senior Open is one of the major championships in men's senior golf. It was first played in 1980 and is administered by the United States Golf Association and is recognized as a major championship by both the Champions Tour and the European Seniors Tour...
, it was decided to use the existing par-three 18th for the first time, but it was played out of order as the 10th. However, this proved to be logistically difficult, as there was a rather long walk around the lake to get from the 9th green to the 10th tee, followed by another as the players had to double back to get to the 11th tee following completion of the 10th. The USGA broke with tradition for the 1997 U.S. Open, and played the entire Blue Course in its original order and finished with the par-3 18th, which was the first time in history that the tournament had finished on a par-three.
The USGA was unsatisfied with their experiment, as most of the drama surrounding the 1997 Open had been decided at the 17th hole. With the creation of the new tour event in 2007 as well as the upcoming 2011 U.S. Open, it was decided to solve the problem once and for all. The club voted to permanently reverse the direction of the 18th hole, and Rees Jones was brought in to design a new par-3, which now plays in the opposite direction to the old 18th. The new hole now plays as the 10th, with the rest of the routing shifted so that the original par-four 17th hole now plays as the permanent 18th. A long walk from the new 10th green to the 11th tee remains, but not nearly as far as the old configuration.
Gold Course
The Gold Course has always been the shorter course in comparison to the Blue Course. It has been renovated twice; with
George FazioGeorge Fazio was an American professional golfer and a golf course architect.Fazio, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was a respected player in the mid-twentieth century and competed in seven Masters Tournaments from 1947 to 1954...
and
Tom FazioThomas Fazio, ASGCA is a golf course architect.Fazio graduated in 1962 from Lansdale Catholic High School and was inducted into its "Hall of Fame" in 2007. He began his career in golf course design with his family's firm in suburban Philadelphia, which he left in the 1960s; he established his own...
redoing the final nine holes in 1977. In 2000, the course got a complete renovation by
Arthur HillsArthur Hills is an American golf course designer who achieved a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University. He has designed more than 180 new golf courses, including private, resort, upscale, and public golf courses...
. Not only did Hills lengthen the course, he also reconstructed the tees, fairways, greens, and cart paths. The course is now as challenging as the Blue Course. It ranked 5th Greatest Golf Course in the state of Maryland according to Golf Digest Greatest Golf Courses in 2007. It now measures 6,844 yards from the back tees. It is a par 71 with a slope rating of 73.6/135. Bent grass is used for the fairways and Poa annua grass is used for the greens.
Major tournaments held
| Year | Tournament | Winner |
| 1964 |
U.S. OpenThe United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
|
 Ken VenturiKenneth Venturi is an American former professional golfer and golf broadcaster.-Early years and amateur career:Venturi was born in San Francisco, California. He learned golf from an early age, and developed his game at Harding Park Golf Course and other public courses in the area...
|
| 1976 The 1976 PGA Championship was the 58th PGA Championship played August 12–16 at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. Dave Stockton won the championship.-Final leaderboard:-External links:* - at www.golfobserver.com...
|
PGA ChampionshipThe PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...
|
Dave Stockton David Knapp Stockton is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour....
|
| 1995 |
U.S. Senior Open |
Tom Weiskopf Thomas Daniel Weiskopf is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. His most successful decade was the 1970s, and he won 16 PGA Tour titles between 1968 and 1982. After winding down his tournament career, Weiskopf has become a noted golf course...
|
| 1997 |
U.S. OpenThe United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
|
 Ernie ElsTheodore Ernest "Ernie" Els is a South African professional golfer, who has been one of the top professional players in the world since the mid-1990s. A former World No. 1, he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature along with his fluid, seemingly effortless golf swing...
|
| 2011 The 2011 United States Open Championship, the 111th U.S. Open, was played June 16–19 at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. It was won by Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who set 11 U.S. Open records on the weekend, including the lowest total 72-hole score and the lowest total under...
|
U.S. OpenThe United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
|
 Rory McIlroyRory McIlroy is a Northern Irish professional golfer from Holywood in County Down. He has represented Europe, Great Britain & Ireland, and Ireland as both an amateur and a professional. He had a successful amateur career, topping the World Amateur Golf Ranking for one week as a 17-year-old in 2007...
|
Major championships
The first
golf major championshipThe men's major golf championships, commonly known as the Major Championships, and often referred to simply as the majors, are the four most prestigious annual tournaments in professional golf...
to be held at Congressional was the 1964
U.S. OpenThe United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
.
Ken VenturiKenneth Venturi is an American former professional golfer and golf broadcaster.-Early years and amateur career:Venturi was born in San Francisco, California. He learned golf from an early age, and developed his game at Harding Park Golf Course and other public courses in the area...
won the tournament with a score of two under par. In 1976, the
PGA ChampionshipThe PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...
was held at Congressional. With the course playing as a par 70,
Dave StocktonDavid Knapp Stockton is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments on both the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour....
won with a score of 281, or one over par. The second U.S. Open held at Congressional was played in 1997.
Ernie ElsTheodore Ernest "Ernie" Els is a South African professional golfer, who has been one of the top professional players in the world since the mid-1990s. A former World No. 1, he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature along with his fluid, seemingly effortless golf swing...
won his second major championship with a score of four under par. The Blue Course hosted the 2011
U.S. OpenThe United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
from June 16 to June 19. Twenty two year old
Rory McIlroyRory McIlroy is a Northern Irish professional golfer from Holywood in County Down. He has represented Europe, Great Britain & Ireland, and Ireland as both an amateur and a professional. He had a successful amateur career, topping the World Amateur Golf Ranking for one week as a 17-year-old in 2007...
, of
Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, won the championship with a final score of 16 under par, a
U.S. OpenThe United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
record. He won by 8 shots.
Congressional has hosted one
senior major golf championshipMen's professional senior golf is for players aged 50 and above. Golf differs from all other sports in having lucrative competitions for this age group. The leading senior tour is the U.S. based Champions Tour, which was established in 1980 . It has established a roster of five major championships...
; the 1995
U.S. Senior OpenThe U.S. Senior Open is one of the major championships in men's senior golf. It was first played in 1980 and is administered by the United States Golf Association and is recognized as a major championship by both the Champions Tour and the European Seniors Tour...
, won by
Tom WeiskopfThomas Daniel Weiskopf is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. His most successful decade was the 1970s, and he won 16 PGA Tour titles between 1968 and 1982. After winding down his tournament career, Weiskopf has become a noted golf course...
.
Other tournaments
The Kemper Open, later called the
Booz Allen ClassicThe Booz Allen Classic was a regular golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1968 to 2006.Perhaps more so than any other "regular" PGA Tour stop, the event wandered about, not just from course to course within a given metropolitan area, but along the East Coast...
, was played at Congressional eight times. Notable winners include
Craig StadlerCraig Robert Stadler is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments at both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour level....
,
John MahaffeyJohn Drayton Mahaffey, Jr. is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments including 10 PGA Tour events....
,
Fred CouplesFrederick Steven Couples is an American professional golfer who competes on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. A former World No. 1, he has won numerous events, most notably the 1992 Masters Tournament. In August 2011 he won his maiden senior major at the Senior Players Championship...
,
Greg NormanGregory John Norman AO is an Australian professional golfer and entrepreneur who spent 331 weeks as the world's Number 1 ranked golfer in the 1980s and 1990s...
, and
Sergio GarcíaSergio García Fernández is a Spanish professional golfer who plays on both the United States PGA Tour and the European Tour. He has spent much of his career in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings...
. The 2007
AT&T NationalThe AT&T National is a professional golf tournament held in the Washington D.C. area during the Fourth of July weekend. The PGA Tour event is hosted by Tiger Woods and benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation. The first AT&T National was held July 5–8, 2007, at the Blue Course of the Congressional...
, sponsored and hosted by
Tiger WoodsEldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
, was played at Congressional July 5–8 and was won by
K.J. ChoiChoi Kyung-Ju , also known as K. J. Choi. is a South Korean professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour. Since turning pro in 1994, he has won a total of eighteen professional golf tournaments worldwide, including eight on the PGA Tour, making him Asia's most successful golfer. His...
of
South KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. The 2008 AT&T was played July 3–6 and won by
Anthony KimAnthony Ha-Jin Kim is an American professional golfer.-Amateur career:A Korean American, Kim was born in Los Angeles, California and resides in Dallas, Texas. He attended La Quinta High School in La Quinta, California. After high school, he attended the University of Oklahoma for three years; this...
. Tiger Woods was unable to play due to surgery on his knee. The 2009 AT&T National was played July 2–5 and won by host, Tiger Woods.
The course has hosted two
USGAThe United States Golf Association is the United States' national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the Rules of Golf. The USGA also provides a national handicap system...
amateur golf tournaments: the U.S. Junior Amateur of 1949, won by
Gay BrewerGay Robert Brewer, Jr. was an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and won the 1967 Masters Tournament....
, and the
U.S. Women's AmateurThe U.S. Women's Amateur is the leading golf tournament in the United States for female amateur golfers. It is played annually and is one of the 13 United States national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association . Female amateurs from all nations are eligible to compete...
of 1959, won by
Barbara McIntireBarbara Joy McIntire is an American golfer.McIntire was born in Toledo, Ohio. Living in Florida, she began playing golf as a young girl and at age 15 made a splash at the 1950 U.S...
. The 2009 U.S. Amateur had originally been scheduled to be played at Congressional, but the event was relocated in order to allow the club to make further changes to the course prior to the 2011 US Open. This scheduling change allowed for the AT&T National to be held in 2009 at Congressional.
Exclusivity
The current initiation fee for the club is $120,000. The waiting list is approximately 10 years. Once admitted to the club, the applicant may enjoy the club’s social facilities for a monthly fee while waiting an extra two years for use of the golf facilities.
Notable past members
Past members of Congressional have included these former
Presidents of the United States:
- William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
- Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
- Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
- Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
- Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
- Gerald R. Ford
Many Washington, D.C. dignitaries attended the 1997 U.S. Open.
Amenities
Congressional Country Club has an indoor bowling alley, tennis club, grand ballroom, one indoor and two outdoor pools, fitness center, fine dining and grand foyer. It also has overnight guest accommodations and a paddle tennis area. It has hosted a number of famous weddings. It also has a spa, massage services, indoor jacuzzi, men's and women's locker rooms, two bars with large plasma televisions, and a grill for everyday eating.
External links