Finding a quality public golf course in the Washington, D.C. area is about as easy as finding a lobbyist or lawyer on K Street. Like the D.C. population, the golf course selection is large and diverse.

Combine that with museums, monuments, a busy pro sports calendar and rich variety of cosmopolitan dining and diversions, and the D.C. area never lacks for things to do. Golfers can head west for mountain classics Whiskey Creek Golf Club, Bull Run Golf Club, Blue Ridge Shadows Golf Club or Maryland National Golf Club. Head east for the water views of Swan Point Yacht & Country Club or Queenstown Harbor.

Closer to the Beltway, stellar tracks include Westfields Golf Club, Lake Presidential Golf Club, Raspberry Falls Golf & Hunt Club, the outstanding tribute track, Renditions Golf Course, and Stonewall Golf Club, which skirts Lake Manassas, replicating the feel of neighboring Robert Trent Jones.

For those who want to play close to town, the University of Maryland Golf Course is the only 18-hole public inside the Beltway in Maryland or Virginia. The 36-hole Golf Club of Lansdowne in Leesburg, Va. is the only resort course within an hour of downtown and includes the only Greg Norman design in the Mid-Atlantic.