Dogwood Trace Golf Club

Dogwood Trace Golf Club is a municipal course with a mission. Tom Clark’s design team did a great job of redoing the course in 2007 following the 2003 devastation of the course by Hurricane Isabel. The variety of hole designs, size of greens, and the layout of the course makes this a challenging experience. This is a very walkable course with very slight elevation changes. 

The Dogwood Trace team has created a desirable, playable facility for people to come enjoy a round of golf. The staff are attuned to making guests feel welcome, ready to enjoy a day at the course. The location is a huge plus not far off I-95 and close to an developing casino less than two miles away. There are opportunities for improvement across the course and on the practice facilities. As Dogwood Trace prepares for the improvements and modifications in anticipation of hosting people from the casino crowd, they will be positioned for handling this new clientele.

Food & beverage offer great service and excellent food. The BBQ sandwich is superb! Practice facilities include two putting greens, bunker & chipping practice and a shortened driving range, limited to about 225 yards. Fairways and greens on the course are in pretty good shape. There are only a few spots that need attention and management knows where they are. Bunkers are mostly decent, but could use a little maintenance to clean them up.

Favorite holes: Hole 2 - the bunkers around the green are fabulously designed. The green is slightly elevated from a fairly wide open fairway. Hole 6 is a double dogleg, down and up fairway to an elevated green, bunkered in front. Hole 8 - another really nice, challenging par 5. Just wide open and fun with bunkers well-placed. Hole 13 - tee shot over water to an slight dogleg right fairway. Again, bunkers well placed around the green. Hole 18 is a monster par 5 and a great finishing hole. Makes you want to come back.

We can’t wait to go back.

Independence Golf Club

Virginia Golf Course Reviews experienced a very warm welcome at Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, VA. Among the surprises we experienced this visit: hybrid Lexus cars on the course as ‘beverage cars’, a garden for farm to table vegetables, golf carts equipped with Bluetooth and PXG signage planted in the middle of the fairway to mark the target point of your drive off the tee. Giff Breed’s team of professionals have set the stage for the golf course of the future – the quality of our experience was exceptional. A few things you will experience at Independence include well-maintained golf courses (both the Par 3 course & the Championship Course), the greens will be fast & true, it’s walkable – but long, elevated greens with false fronts, wide fairways speed up play and the food is great. It’ hard to find a more fun-filled golf experience. The music at the practice facilities gets your revved up for a fun round on which ever course you play. When you go to Independence – make sure you tell them we sent you! 

Lakeside Park Club

Lakeside Park Club is a gem of Donald Ross and a crown for the Richmond golf landscape. From Lakeside Park Club’’s website – “Lakeside was the very first course developed in Richmond in 1896. Lewis Ginter, a prominent Richmond businessman, development and hotelier, philanthropist and world-traveler, created Lakeside Park.”

Lewis Ginter invited Donald Ross to create 9 holes on his zoo property; then 9 more holes were added shortly after the course opened to complete the 18 hole format we see today.

Lakeside Park Club (LPC) is a private club. You can get on the course if you play with a member or play a tournament. LPC is actively engaged with the local community – hosting charity events and member involved activities that benefit the broader community.

Unique to this course are the zoo cage for bear and the alligator pit on Hole 4, and ten holes with blind tee shots. The bear logo represents their unique history with the zoo, the lake and golf. This course is designed like a Scottish-style course where you don’t return to the clubhouse after nine holes.

Ross’s creation has five tee box choices ranging from 5132 yards to 6302 yards – some of the more challenging 6300 yards you’ll play!

Our reviewer’s favorite holes: No 5 – short par 4 with two green side bunkers protecting the green; Hole 12, Par 3 – a short, turtle-backed green; and Hole 18, Par 5 – a great closing hole with that narrowing approach to the green, and the possibility of playing it from the No 1 fairway!

Make sure you tell them we sent you when you get on!

Magnolia Green Golf Club

This combo Nicholas & Clark design makes a fascinating experience. The driving range, putting and chipping practicing facilities are amazing – top of the line. The greens are challenging, undulating and rarely flat. The fairways were typically wide open, with well placed bunkers scattered throughout. Green side bunkers were large and deep. The condition of the fairway bunkers could be improved – and the management team has a plan to address this. Speaking of management – they have it going! It’s a great team and they have programs to keep 38,000-40,000 visitors per year coming back.

The 18th hole – a mid-length, par-4 with a receptive landing area – is Magnolia Green’s signature hole. A downhill second shot into a well-protected green sloping back to front gets your attention! There are more bunkers than necessary – but this Nicklaus design is a must play – before they take out some of these bunkers. This course is quite friendly to the left to right shot maker. 

Marc Desisto is the detail man, knows the golf business, creates his own rating system and teaches Callaway fitters across the country. His team is amazing. We appreciated hearing about the goals to clean up the bunkers (noted below) and work at continuous improvement on the golfer experience. 

Make sure you tell them we sent you when you get on!

The Golf Club at Mattaponi Springs

The Golf Club at Mattaponi Springs is a great golf experience you’ll want to add to your list of ‘must play’ courses. While we visited in spring, course conditions were superb. Greens were a little slow, but the fairways rolled very well. This is a course with lots of elevation changes from tee to green. Go to their website for a detailed hole-by-hole description. It’s great preparation.

Hole 11 is our favorite – a double fairway, with risk-reward opportunities on both fairways, to an elevated green, sloping back to front! Holes 13-17 are generally flat by comparison (with the Par 3, 14 being an exception).

While they could add yardage markers on the driving range and a few yardage notices around the course to avoid ravines, this is a great experience waiting for you. Mattaponi Spring’s superintendent, Kevin, is a highly qualified and experienced individual who is making all the right adjustments for playability, fairness and lines of site. His team has removed lots of trees, note Hole 9 on the right side to open the fairway and adding additional sod to soften the blow not so well hit tee shot.

Give John Thomas, GM, a call and tell him that  Virginia Golf Course Reviews sent you!

The Golf Club at The Highlands

The Golf Club at Highlands sits in the middle of a housing development – but you’d never know it playing the course. The clubhouse and fitness center have everything you want in a golf club – food, exercise equipment and The Bunker – an indoor teaching station to improve your game! 

The owners are growing their own Zoysia for the fairways and will change them out in 2025. They have already changed out the greens to Bermuda, and they play exceptionally well. In addition, improvements will be made to the driving range following the changes to the fairways and greens. The owners also provide all their own bread from their bakery, Buffa Bakery. April, the Manager of The Reserve, was engaging and efficient. Both of us enjoyed the Reuben!  

You will want to play multiple times. We enjoyed the uniqueness of the course – five Par 3s and five Par 5s and the design by Steve Smyers was interesting, challenging and fair. 

This course is accessible on a number counts – through the VSGA VIP card, and their fee structure as a semi-private course. 

The course isn’t that long (6565 yards from the back tees) and has six sets of tees. We would have enjoyed playing from the back, except it was raining when we started the round and decided to play from blue at 6176 yards. Wise choice!

One of our favorites: Hole 9 is the former finishing hole. This dogleg left hole earns its Handicap No 1 rating. The tee shot is a narrow tree-lined shot, but goal one is to hit the fairway. The 2nd shot is quite challenging with fairway bunkers and three bunkers protecting the severely undulating green. Enjoy!