Getting To Know: Rum Pointe Seaside Golf Links By Brian Weis

Getting To Know: Rum Pointe Seaside Golf Links

An Insightful Interview With Scott Cooper, GM

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Scott Cooper who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
Rum Pointe Seaside Golf Links is located along the Sinepuxent Bay across from the Assateague Island National Seashore.

Rum Pointe Seaside Golf Links has become Ocean City's "must play" golf course and one of Maryland's premier golf venues. This spectacular seaside design by the world-renowned father/son team of Pete & P.B. Dye opened in the spring of 1997. Located off Highway 611 on the Sinepuxent Bay overlooking Assateague National Seashore Park, Mother Nature and the Dye's have combined talents to bring world-class golf to the Ocean City area.

This Scottish-style links features bent-grass on the fairways and greens. Most of the 18 holes have a bay view with several holes having direct bay frontage, where you can start your ball over the water to shorten the hole. The Dyes have certainly created situations of risk and reward that will quicken the heart rate of even the most experienced golfer.

If Someone Was Looking To Golf In The Area, Why Should They Play Your Course?
Rum Pointe offers pristine conditions. With our course conditions and natural setting along the bay, makes Rum Pointe a must play in the state.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
Rum Pointe was designed to take advantage of the predominant southeast winds during the prime season, but if you play on a day when the wind comes from the north or west, you will have an extremely stern test of golf. It will be important to consider the speed and direction of the wind when you make your tee selections.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
Golfweek Magazine's America's Best Courses for Maryland (2006)

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
Holes 8 and 16 are the most photographed holes. Both holes play directly along the bay and look across Assateague Island and offer an excellent backdrop for a picture. Both holes offer natural beauty that you just cannot find at any other golf courses in our area, if not the east coast. Along with the beauty, their difficulty can often be a topic of conversation as well.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
Hole 8, one of the courses most beautiful views of the Sinipuxent Bay, is a long par five requiring three quality shots to reach the green. A slight dogleg left, with the bay along the entire left side, makes this hole rather intriguing. Power players may be able to reach the green in two with a well played wood, but one must be careful of the bunkers and wetlands guarding the long two-tiered green.

Most golfers will make this a three shot hole. On your second shot, I would favor the right side of the fairway to allow for an easier approach on your third shot; however, there is a medium sized fairway bunker guarding that right side for that very reason. Choose the right club and pay attention to the distance to that fairway bunker. Either lay up short of the bunker or carry the bunker. Should you hit the drive long enough, the ideal shot would be to the right side of the fairway and over that right side bunker leaving a short iron and better angle at the green.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
The grill offers excellent lunch fare. I would recommend the chicken salad with an orange crush.

Back Tee Stats
Par: 72
Yardage: 7001
Slope: 122
Rating: 72.6

More Information
Rum Pointe Seaside Golf Links
7000 Rum Pointe Rd
Berlin, MD, 21811
410-629-1414
www.rumpointe.com

Revised: 01/26/2016 - Article Viewed 39,189 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.