Roughing it at Avenel – Paula Jagemann plays golf at Tournament Players Club at Avenel – Brief Article
Jagemann and her husband don’t belong to a golf club per se, but they tee it up on many of the public tracks that dot the Washington D.C. area. “One of my favorite courses is the Tournament Players Club at Avenel,” says the head of the Vienna, VA-based firm that employs more than 200 people and is the corporate parent of Online Office Supplies Co. and Internet Office Solutions and Services. “I enjoy playing it before the Kemper Open (a regular PGA Tour event) is held there because they let the rough grow up beforehand, and the course plays so hard. And for me, the best hole at Avenel is the par-three 9th. In fact, it’s my favorite golf hole anywhere.
“The tee on No. 9 is highly elevated, which I really like, and you have to hit over a small stream and pond to what looks like an island green,” says Jagemann, a former executive secretary who now has her former boss serving on the ECI2 board of directors and her husband working for one of her divisions. “Usually, it’s an 8-iron for me when I play it from the whites, which generally measure just under 140 yards. I love looking down on the green from that tee, and I love looking at the pond and stream to the right and the bunkers to the left and back. It gives you all the hazards you can stomach. And there are so many flowers and bushes blooming around the time of the Kemper. It really looks good.”
And therein may lie another reason why the 9th is indeed the golf hole she likes best. “The food house at the turn is right there, and that’s always something to look forward to when I’m out there,” Jagemann says. “If I’m playing badly, at least I can go get a Heineken.”
John Steinbreder is a senior writer for Golf Week magazine and is the author five books, including Golf Courses of the U.S. Open.
PAULA JAGEMANN
CEO, eCommerce Industries (ECI2)
TOURNAMENT PLAYERS CLUB AT AVENEL
LOCATION: Potomac, MD
HOLE: 9th, par-three, 166 yards from the back tees, 150 yards from the blue markers, 136 yards from the whites and 118 yards from the reds.
HOLE DESCRIPTION: It’s a downhill par-three with an elevated tee, a stream and small pond guarding the right side of the green and bunkers on the left and in back. The prevailing wind is usually in the player’s face, and in that case the hole more or less plays its yardage. Otherwise, it plays a bit shorter because of the downhill tee shot.
COURSE ARCHITECT: Ault/Clark & Associates
CLUB DESCRIPTION: Opened in 1986, Avenel is owned and operated by the PGA Tour. The par-71 track measures 7,005 yards from the championship markers and is located just outside the nation’s capital. Avenel is home to the Kemper Open, a PGA Tour event that’s generally held in late May or early June, and its membership roster includes some of the biggest hitters–in business and politics, that is–in the D.C. area.
Author: John Steinbreder