Bide-A-Wee MGC
Portsmouth, VA
1952, Challaner Harper; Renovation by Tom Clark & Curtis Strange
Gold 6940, 73.5, 130, 72
Blue 6380, 71.0, 126, 72
White 5860, 68.5, 121, 72
Directions: From I-264, get off at the Victory Blvd exit and turn left, travel to Greenwood and turn right, drive to Bide-A-Wee Ln and make a right, head straight to the course.
'09 Non-Resident Fees: $52 Weekends, $40 Weekdays with cart
4 stars by Golf Digest, 2002 (Most Improved, 2 stars in 2001)
Golfcourse.com Review: This is a very difficult course. The tree-lined fairways are narrow, and the greens are well bunkered. Water hazards come into play on almost every hole.
Avg. Golfcourse.com Player Review: 4.1/5.0. Not much in the way of comments, a couple raves about conditions, greens, new redesign. One guy complained about being rushed to the tee 30 minutes prior to his tee time and coaxed by the starter over the loud speaker for slow play 3 times on the 1st hole.
Per the course website: Bent Grass greens. Narrow and challenging fairways lined with majestic pines. Picturesque lakes and ponds. First-class clubhouse, pro shop, restaurant and facilities. This is Bide-A-Wee, dramatically reshaped into a Curtis Strange signature championship golf course. With a storied past and a dramatic $8 million renovation that has the players and the national golf press raving, Bide-A-Wee is, without a doubt, one of the finest municipal golf courses in the nation.
The original Bide-A-Wee layout featured extremely narrow and small greens that fell off severely on the sides. Tom Clark of Ault, Clark & Associates and Curtis Strange have done a masterful job of keeping the original hole corridors and the feeling of narrow green approaches yet the green square footage necessary to accommodate a busy public golf course. Strategically placed sand bunkers, waste areas and grass bunkers add interesting features to the course. The eight ponds were built to adequately drain the course and provide water hazards on ten different holes. Although thousands of pine trees were removed from the site, almost every fairway is lined with stately pines that form jail bars for wayward shots.