Course

The Congressional Country Club is a prestigious country club and golf course located in Bethesda, Maryland. Congressional opened in 1924 and, with the 2011 U.S. Open, has hosted three U.S. Opens and a PGA Championship, and is an annual stop on the PGA Tour, with the AT&T National, hosted by Tiger Woods.

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 Jones. Both courses are known for their rolling terrain, tree-lined fairways, and wide challenging greens. Water hazards also come into play on both courses.

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 Digest 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 Jones in 1957 and Rees Jones 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 grass is used for the fairways and for the greens. Until renovated in 2009, Annual Bluegrass (Poa annua) was used for the greens.