Charm City Courses: Forest Park

A couple weeks ago, hubby and I played Forest Park with Seri and her husband. Located in Northwest Baltimore, Forest Park has a totally different feel than Mt. Pleasant. While Mt. Pleasant is so hilly that riding a cart is advisable, Forest Park has a flat, wide open feel and is easily walkable. The course straddles a road called Hillsdale, but since it was a weekend, there wasn't much traffic on it.

On the outside, the Rawlings-Fulton Clubhouse looks like a modest white building, but it has been totally refurbished on the inside, with event space and some of the cleanest, newest bathrooms I've ever seen at a municipal golf course.

There's lots of tree planting going on all over the place. Or maybe they're planting grape vines next to those wooden stakes. Can you imagine? Golfing at a vineyard in the city!

The clubhouse looks shiny and new from the back too.

Yes, fairways are wide and flat.

So wide and flat, they need tall, bordering trees to separate the fairways.

Another wide fairway.

Houses are close to the edges of some holes, so it looks like more trees are in order to protect them from errant balls.

Some distinctive boulders.

And of course some stairs to look at the action ahead on a downhill fairway.

Here's another set of stairs, but obviously much more recently constructed.

One par 5 has a unique method of helping you find where your ball lands: color coded trees.

Are these wooden steps to the beach? No, just a little bunker staircase. And yes, my ball landed in that sand trap.

When play is slow, what's nicer than a bench to wait on?

Looks like someone was whiling away some time with a Natty Boh!

I shot a 103 on that round. Greens were fast and hard to read due to the overcast skies. But I would definitely play here again. Because it's flat, and adjacent holes are somewhat open to each other, it's easy to find other people's balls flying into your fairway. So just be on the lookout for that. Or wear a helmet.