Pine Ridge GC , Lutherville MD 150605

Holes: 18 Par: 72 Length: 6724 yards Slope: 123 Rating: 71.9

This is north of I695 around Baltimore more towards I-95 but not quite there, and about 15 minutes drive up north off I-695 on the reservoir east of Timonium Md.

Pine Ridge I'd have to give a B at most, somewhere between a B- and a B.
It's an upscale course in a sense, great clubhouse and decent food, good driving-range but the course itself is a little "eh".
It's a woods course that is on the edge of a lake, and the lake borders a lot of the holes, so there are some decent views of the lake from the course, very nice when the sun sets and all that, but the course itself just isn't much of a course. I would say that the only really-good holes on it are #8 (the last par3 on the front side, elevated tee to a green bordering the lake, which is a great hole), maybe #17 which is a lot like #8 but shorter, and #18 which is a surprisingly-good hole. The rest are just "eh". One of the big problems here is that it's too straightfoward with very few carries required and quite often the fairways are board-flat side to side with plenty of space to hit between the trees. Like the golf equivalent of a 4-door sedan back in the days before sedans became sportscars to avoid this very cliche. So it's largely an anachronism. There aren't many elevated greens, quite often the green is below your feet so you're just hitting to a downhill green (that's the case even on #8) . It is a very simple course to play, and with the holes mostly bordered by evergreens with pine needles under them, it's also not like you're going to lose your ball if you hit the ball off the fairway and into the woods. Sometimes you will, because the woods are in front of a lake and there's at least a marsh there if not the lake itself, but sometimes you won't, because there will just be evergreen trees running between two adjacent fairways. The main thing on this course is not to try to overpower it, just keep the ball reasonably straight and you'll have a fairly easy round.

Now to be fair, there are a fair number of holes with tricky drives and approach-shots. Absolutely.
But I'd say that they represent maybe a 3rd of the course. There just aren't enough of them for the course to really be a challenge, plus there's almost no waste along the holes, beyond the various marshes and so-forth that front the lake. And while "flat" greens aren't elevated it is not a given to play these greens, but that's still one degree of difficulty off the table. It is not a "trouble-free" course but it does have a fairly low amount of trouble.

So beyond that what it does have going for it is a very low number of houses on or near the course, and it's also free of road-noise. I think that you can see traffic crossing the lake from one or two of the holes, but that traffic is far away and inaudible.

It's not a bad round...it's a decent round with good views of the lake especially in the afternoon, but overall this is a fairly mundane course.
Unfortunately it will cost you real money. I've never played this course for less than $50 with a cart. And, of course, the first tee is that evil sort of first tee in that you tee-off right behind the clubhouse next to the putting-green and there are maybe 50 people standing around making noise and watching you tee-off. Likewise the 5th green is right between the putting-green and the driving-range, right next to the road leading to the course. Not the ideal situation for people who aren't used to playing in front of strangers, and it's a par5 so quite often people are hitting 3-woods into that green which is a disaster.

Overall the thing is that this is a decent course that seems to think that it is a lot better than it is. if you compare it to another city course like Carroll Park, ok it's another league above that, certainly.
But if you compare it to other public courses in the DC area, it begins to look like a local beauty-pageant winner that comes in 25th in the national pageant. I wouldn't even say that it's much better than Rocky Point, certainly it's not better than Timbers at Troy, except for the lake views and the lack of houses. The course is really like getting a slice of pound-cake at a French restaurant. It's good pound-cake but it's still just pound-cake.