All 18 Holes – The Golf Club at Mattaponi Springs (Ruther Glen, Virginia)

All 18 Holes – The Golf Club at Mattaponi Springs (Ruther Glen, Virginia)

Welcome back everyone. Thanks for checking out another video. We have the golf club at Matapony Springs in Ruther Glenn, Virginia. For those not too familiar with this area, it’s off 95. It’s it’s in between DC and Richmond. It’s closer to the Richmond side. If I had to guess, this is probably an hour and a half, maybe two hours from the Northern Virginia DC area. But this is definitely worth the trip. I think this course, as you’re going to see today, it does an amazing job showing what Virginia golf is all about. You want elevation, you want water, you want uh tree lines everywhere, you want certain force carries. I mean, there there’s just a really good mixture of golf here. And so, for anyone, again, if you’ve not checked this out, it’s definitely worth the hour, hour and a half drive from the Northern Virginia area or wherever in Virginia you’re from, go check this club out. And so, today’s round, it’ll be my wife and I. We are, I believe it was her spring break, so she’s a teacher for Fairfax County. And this took place in spring of 2025. I believe I’ll check the dates, but I think it was Aprilish is when this was taking place. So, the conditions were actually pretty dang good. You’ll see that I have a hoodie on and I think my wife has like a vest on. So, spring golf, you know, when it’s kind of that 60° kind of chilly, but the sun’s out, there is nothing better than that. Fall golf is kind of the same way. But, you’re going to notice that the conditions were actually pretty good for coming off a brutal winter that we had. And yes, I know this is coming out in September, so we’re almost what, five, six months after the fact. But regardless, I think the shape was great. It could have been better, but I think they were prepping for summer coming up. And and I’m just splitting hairs at this point. Very, very good course overall. Let’s dive into it. And hole one, just take a look at how visually appealing this is. For someone that’s never played this course, uh, again, and I could say this about every course, there’s probably a few holes and a few shots that I would take differently. Um, I should have checked what the water runs out to. I did not hit that ball good and I luckily, you know, kind of favored the left side, but for long hitters, you probably don’t want driver there. Um, took a T-shot of my wife. Feel like she doesn’t get a lot of love. You can see the ball right there. Kind of hard to see, but she striped a fairway. Mrs. Mark Aries Golf. I mean, look at her making me proud. Um, also for context and spoiler alert, this is uh every video I feel like we did not hit the driving range one bit. So, hour and a half, hour 45 car ride. It’s a cold, chilly day. We go right to the first hole. That’s never a good sign. So, you’re going to see some weird ugly golf today. But the good news is, uh, we score pretty decently. From the thumbnail and title, you’re going to notice that this is what singledigit, you know, kind of five handicap golf looks like. I think the theme as you hopefully stick through all 18 holes and this isn’t uh you I’m not just saying this to make you stay till the end but the final four to five maybe six holes some of the most beautiful golf that I have ever seen I think there’s like a little mini man-made lake super open and it helps that the sun comes out and the weather was good we have some awesome finishing hole so please do check out the back nine but this round I think does a really good job of just explaining what five handicap golf looks Like and for those that you know singledigit five handicap while that’s a decent golfer pretty good you could say there are levels to this and hopefully this video can call out what those are. The difference between a 10 and a five versus a five and a scratch. I mean it’s just night and day. So you’re going to see that I chunk some shots. I thin some shots. I have some OBS but I’m able to scramble around, get up and down and still score decently. So you’ll see a lot of pars on the scorecard today. And I think that’s what singledigit kind of mid to high singledigit handicap golf is all about. But anyway, uh hopefully that that speaks for itself. But going back to the course, I was saying how this is the first time I’m playing it. And when you’re playing something for the first time, there’s a lot of guessing to it. And I’m hoping this video helps you as a scout or if you have the apps nowadays, 18 birdies, Grint, definitely break that out. Uh but here’s the first par three. Let’s get back to the course itself. Anytime you see a super short par three, you know something’s up. This is a first off, it’s visually appealing. Look at that. I think it’s a super cool hole. But anytime it’s short, uh, you can’t miss long, can’t miss right. It’s all OB short. It’s almost like an island green, even though it’s not. And I didn’t notice anything too crazy with the greens, but I did miss in like a weird spot. But I think if I remember correctly, this was a tricky green depending where the pin placement is. So I think a par, you know, I’m very, very happy with a par on a short three. Not going to get greedy there. Then look at this hole. I think this does a good job explaining like what the course is. And for people that have played this, maybe you’ll agree with this, maybe you won’t, but it’s almost like two different golf courses is what uh is what I remember from this. You’re going to see a lot of holes. Like look how beautiful this is. Just all treeine. Uh really really visually appealing. Some elevation. So you’re going to see a lot of this and then in the back nine it changes up. It’s actually pretty open. you have some water. Uh, super cool hole. It’s almost like playing two courses, like I said. But this par4, it doesn’t help when you have a really crappy T-OT, but luckily that ground ball to third stayed in play. Um, I hit a pretty decent approach. It just didn’t have enough to get there, which is fine. Can we rely on the short game and walk away with a par? We’d be stealing one. We don’t. Um, that’s okay. We’ll take a bogey. That’s the That’s what I get for having a really really poor T- shot. And take a look at the greens, by the way. So, the greens, I mean, the contours, the undulation on them are are pretty crazy, but they were running pure. I wouldn’t say they were the fastest ever. I don’t know if, you know, they were keeping it a little slower, a little longer prepping for the summer season, but I could tell that if it runs just a tiny bit faster with some of the the contour on the greens, it would be Yeah, that would be a a a nightmare, a recipe for disaster for people trying to score well. So, I think the greens are also a part of the defense. Anytime you see a short par4 on the card, this is 280 yards, you know something’s up. You do not need driver on this hole. If you saw me, I took um I took three hybrid. If you have like a 200 to 220 club, that’s all you need. And you’ll have a really comfy wedge in. You’ll notice on this one, I kind of juiced it. I remember telling myself, I’m trying to get better at not leaving birdie short. So, I really, really juiced that putt. I’m lucky I caught a piece and kind of hung on. So, we will take a two putt comfy par. But man, that’s um you know, a short par4. That was one I would have loved to take advantage of. But on to the next one. Another par five. And again, look how cool this hole is. Just look at the tree lines. Just kind of showing you where you need to go. I tried to get cute and hit a draw right down the pipe and kind of ride the fairway. Obviously, a snap hook comes, but it’s okay. We end up taking our medicine. This is probably the shot of the day. I know it might not look like it, but I was I was trying to do like a super choked down five iron punch shot. It rolled for days. That thing rolled like 170 180 yards where I was just trying to put it back in play. And that’s another cool thing, too. I’m going to call out a few holes. I think one of the holes um can’t remember which one in particular, but one of the holes it goes like 300 plus yards because of the elevation. So, again, just play the course and the course will take care of you. we end up having a really poor wedge shot. And if it wasn’t clear, that wedge shot that I had, it looked straight forward. The ball was super above my feet, which is why I pulled it. Uh, whenever that happens, I do try to take a little more club, shorten my swing, and try to control it. But, yeah, just wasn’t a good execution. And this is, you know, I told my wife just to switch it up. Hey, film me from this angle. Let’s see what happens. Uh, always good to have a second camera person with you. We’re not a We’re not a Grant Horvad or Good where there’s a hundred people following you. We are a oneperson operation. One and a half when my wife is around. But oh my goodness. Uh I think I I mute a lot of the audio out where me and my wife are talking to each other. This is the closest I’ve ever come to a hole in one. Uh you’ll kind of see it was hard to see there. Really bad zooming job. You’ll see in a moment. Uh I hit a draw into this pin. The the divot was on the right side where I just walked from and this is where the ball ended up. left and passed. I think I missed my first ace by maybe maybe like six inches. So, man, we got to at least capitalize the birdie. Nope. That stinks. We go from a near hole in one to a really really poor par where you know what? That was just a bad one. So, we live, we learn, we move on. But that was a really cool hole if it wasn’t clear the elevation. I don’t have slope in my rangefinder as you know. So, we kind of guessed and hit the perfect number. On to hole eight. And you’ll notice again another short par4 I thought I could take. So this is really um dumb on me. I gunned the bunker. There was there’s two bunkers you have to worry about. If you saw in the mini map, I gunned the first bunker. I was like, “Oh, you only need about 210 220 to cover it. I didn’t account for the second bunker after that.” And that’s where I ended up. So if I could play this this hole in particular, again, if you’re a really long hitter, take the cheating line. If you’re not, just take like a 18520 club on that left hand side. take the bunkers out. You’ll have a slightly longer approach, but that’s okay. And I do remember this green in particular. So, I hit a really, really good wedge out. I pulled it, but I know the distance was spot on. Look where my ball ended up. Everything just kind of floats to the left and just funnels that way. It’s another good example of, you know, these shorter fours um that maybe you don’t need driver. They’re of course going to defend it with the greens. And here is hole nine. This was one of the coolest coolest holes. Take a look at this where um I I should have taken my camera and shown, but that’s a big big drop off. If you can poke it like 220 to the top of that hill, you’ll probably get a 100 free yards of roll. So, you’re going to notice what is this? A 428 par4 and I have about a 100 in. So, that drive went 330. All you have to do is just hit it like 230 240 and if you catch the speed slot. So, take a look at that. That’s what I’m talking about in the background. I caught a speed slot and it just it just rolled for days. Funny enough, you know, I was in position A pretty dang good. I don’t know if you could do better, but we hit a really poor wedge shot again. And take a look at the greens here. The greens were rolling pretty true. And I don’t know why I just had um took me a while to kind of get the green speeds down, but we’ll take a two put par. I wish I got it there, but you know what? Not a bad front nine. So, we are three over and we’re not even playing our best golf. We had a few mis hits. Speaking of mis hits, um, another kind of straightforward par4, but I end up I don’t know what I did there. The the tracer made it look really really good. Oh goodness. When it rains, it pours. Uh, but that T-OT I I think I hit the ground and that that T-shot went like 180 200 yards. We end up chunking the next one. But this is what I’m talking about. If you can have a decent short game to try and get up and down, it doesn’t matter what your last shots were. just worry about the next few and try to just get the ball in the hole as little strokes as possible. We pulled that one, but the distance control was spot on. I knew I hit my number. So, can we have a zero putt par? This would be a hilarious hole to par. Can we do it? And we just missed it. But that’s okay. That is the exact pace that I’m looking to improve on. Just get the putts there. Leave yourself little tapins. You know, foot foot and a half pass. That is a wonderful putt, but just didn’t go in. So, we’ll take the bogey after a few bad shots. And here’s where again, there’s going to be a few holes where I wish I knew better. This one, um, I think when I checked it on the grint quickly, I want to say it was like a 280 to that creek. I don’t hit it far as you all know. I’m like 250, 260. Uh, take a look at this and how lucky I get. Absolute nightmare. Downs slope in the rough. Might be hard to tell. It’s a really big downslope. So, first off, I have no idea how the ball just stays there. It should have rolled all the way down, but cool, I guess. And this is just a good example of for very long hitters, you probably want to lay up well before that. This is maybe like a 3-wood, fivewood, or some sort of like 230 club. And you’ll leave yourself a longer uh approach in, but you’ll at least have a flat good lie. I don’t really know how to play this shot. I think I took a lot of extra club. I think I took seven iron and kind of just hoped to punch it. That was a borderline almost shanked it. But this is what I’m talking about with it doesn’t matter how good or bad your shots are. If you can get around the greens, if you can save par from anywhere, that was a really, really good approach shot as you saw. Um, we got up and down and we stole one. I think that par is this is probably one of my favorite pars of the entire round. Here’s another example of oh there’s no world I get to that little creek or the uh OB area coming up. I don’t know if it was just the contour of the fairway if it rolled out but from what I remember that was again like 280 290. Take a look also can get wow better to be lucky than good. Can’t place that any better. Bread stakes start right after. It’s no big deal. So, you can see, I mean, I think I had to like film this just to show you guys. I didn’t just drop it right there. My ball just got so lucky. Um, I don’t think I played any differently to be honest. I don’t know if I just caught it really good tailwind. I don’t think I reach it that I think this is almost 300 yards to get to this. So, it must have just rolled all the way down. Um, it doesn’t help when you get lucky and then you do that. I really really tried to get there. I thought I had a decent lie. I could get there. I hit a really poor just kind of banana fade swipy. Um, it hung on in this tall grass. Didn’t have the easiest shot, but uh, we end up taking a wedge. I thought I hit it pretty good and I just misjudged it. So, never good when you have to go up and down to save par, but going on the theme of if you can just save, I hit a really, really good shot to about 3, four feet. Not a gimme. I have to hit this one. But no big deal. We will clean up par there. So, an ugly hole again, but a par is a par in the scorecard. And here’s where, man, oh man, take a look at the next three to four holes. This arguably might be my favorite stretch of holes that I’ve played to date in the state of Virginia. Uh, I should have moved this mini map, but if you look at the far right hand side, there’s this beautiful creek. You have the treeine. It just feels really open as well. I think you’re going to come to a few just really cool and creative holes that make you think. I hit a really good drive. And again, this is one of those depending on how long you are, you might not need to send driver down here. The fairway does get tight, but I end up hitting a decent drive. A really, really poor approach shot. I remember the wind was kind of blowing into. So, I hit my number. I think the wind just knocked it down. But hey, if you can get up and down from anywhere, doesn’t matter, right? So, there’s my chip on. And if we can just save par, we will move on. Um, don’t think I’d do anything differently. Good hole, super cool, visually appealing. And again, this will start the stretch of really, really cool holes moving forward. All right. And this was the one hole I was kind of dreading. I remember looking at the scorecard. And I think the card has this at 212, which is what you see on there. You’re going to hear me talk in just a moment. It was playing 223 with some swirling wind. I hit the shot of my life. But I need two more yards. Take a look at what I’m talking about. I mean, that’s the T- box back there. It was gunning around 223, 220. Uh, I’ll take this all day. Probably like 15 20 feet. But you can see I think it was going to be closer and it just rolled down this really big hill. If you can see this up slope. It’s a two-tier green. If you can see that. All right, let’s pray for the best. And by the way, it’s it’s definitely a three tier green, so you could hear me say two, but this was on the middle tier as well. So depending on where the pin is, I mean, it’s already a long hole. It’s pretty tight as you all saw. And of course, they have to add three layers and three tiers. And and I’m lucky that if you’re going to have a middle pin, I would love to miss short and putt up that hill. This could be a nightmare if it’s a bottom or middle pin and you miss long. But anyway, just to give you an idea of the course. Uh I mean the greens are its defense on top of already being tight and narrow. So just what a cool cool golf hole. Next one coming up. Super short par4. You know something’s up. You can see how it’s like a super wide fairway. If you play it two to 225 and then it shrinks down. So for people who think 320 I’m just going to send driver out there. Don’t do it. Just take like a 200 club, leave yourself with a wedge in. I end up sending driver just because I’m an idiot. But, uh, I do get lucky and it’s it’s somehow ended up not in the not in the rough and not OB. I had like a 10 yard window this could have been and just ended up where it was. So, my my sun run just keeps going of how lucky I’m getting with my drives. I hit a pretty poor wedge shot. Again, number was spot on, but I pulled it. So, don’t worry, we worked on it. That was six months ago. I think we fixed that issue. Can we just get one birdie? Wow, we can. Finally, we are on the scorecard. We’re on the board. There’s the first. There’s the birdie dance. Awkward. Oh, that’s so awkward. I don’t know why I left that in, but we are back. What a good birdie. And we have a shorter par five. This was one of the coolest holes from what I remember. Um, look at the tree line. Look at the T-OT. Makes you think. But here’s here’s where it gets really really tricky. golf holes like this where water to your right OB say OB but there’s tree line left then you have bunker short you have to hit the perfect number perfect line no big deal I kind of do I didn’t catch it super super perfect because this club should have been way more than enough to get the green that thing never left the stick and then take a look at this is uh just to give you an idea of what goes through the mind where I have my normal sand wedge and I have my bump and run club which is my nine iron uh I decide to go nine iron with my logic of I would love to get an eagle here. What can I, you know, what club will give me a better chance to try and haul out and get there? So, I go nine iron bump and run. Uh, in hindsight, you know, I probably, not to sound cocky, but I have I have a pretty good chance and I think I could have gotten up and down easily if I have my normal sand wedge. I probably could have settled for a birdie. But this is what you get kind of that high-risk, high reward. I decide to go for the eagle hole out. And the downside of that, if you don’t haul out, well, you better hope that uh you you one putt. Otherwise, you’re living with a par. So, you live and you learn. On to the next one. This is a really cool par three. This is so poor. So, that’s OB if not clear. I barely missed the top of the rocks by maybe two yards. So, there was a lot of wind. I decided to go sixiron and I tried to play a Tommy Fleetwood kind of flighted down follow through. I decided to rete just full swing sixiron. So stupid. I should have done this the first time. I hit a pretty dang good shot. This is a dart. And of course, it’s always the second time around. Player B, I’m on tour. Um, so here we are. We’re putting for bogey. Look how beautiful this background is. I mean, you can’t draw this up any better. So, of course, I’d love for this to be a birdie putt, but here we are trying to save bogey. I would love to get away with bogey. And also, for what it’s worth, there might have been a drop area. Didn’t know where it was, so I reito on the box. And and we’re actually not mad at that putt. Look where it ended up. You know, pass the hole on the other side. Um very good putt. Just didn’t go in. We’ll move on. Take the double bogey. And that’s okay. You know, that’s why mid to high single digits are where they are. You’ll still have a few blowup holes. I’m lucky I only had one double today. Spoiler alert. I don’t double this hole. Um and and obviously hole 18, there’s always going to be a cool finishing hole. The drop off here in the elevation. I kind of guessed where I needed to hit it and again got really really lucky. You want to hug kind of that tree line depending on your ball flight. That one had a draw to it and I somehow just end up like perfect. It was comical how good this was. Take a look at how there’s elevation though. So the ball was a little below my feet. It makes it’s why the wedge shots today even though they looked poor there were a lot of wed shots that were above below. You don’t really have like a flat lie all the time which is great. It just makes you think and have to play well. So, between the OB’s, tight tree lines, the water, the elevation, ball above, below your feet, what a golf course. Uh, I can’t wait to play this one again. And hopefully I’ll play it in more summer peak conditions where um I think there were some, you can see the trees, some of them are kind of naked, growing back. But if you made it this far, go ahead and do me a favor, hit that subscribe button, hit that like button, show me some love. Uh, I’m going to be vlogging all the courses in the DMV area like I mentioned with Sly Fox, Augustinine, Oakmont, a few more coming out. So, hope you enjoyed. Until next time.

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