The Golf Club at The Highlands

There were pros and cons to our golf outing. I booked the course early on Tuesday for a Friday 8:30am tee time with a nice discount.

We arrive at the course an hour early to hit the driving range and practice some chips and puts before our round. We spoke to the guy at the proshop and told him we were booked from Tuesday. He pulled up the booking and said that we would be starting on a different hole on a shotgun start and be teamed up with a pair of golfers. Within minutes there had to be around 30-40 golfers there and they were still arriving. It reminded me of a busy Walmart parking lot.

I totally get being teamed up and the shotgun start and the courses right to do so, but was very disappointed in the fact that I booked early in the week and me and my buddy wanted our first time playing this course to be from hole number 1 to experience it from start to finish.

I will say this was on me for not calling the night before to make sure what was going to happen, yet it would have been nice had there been some sort of notification email of what was going on, so I could have cancelled and went another time.

The good news is the couple, a husband and wife team, we were teamed up with were fantastic and extremely helpful. They were regulars at the course and were very nice to us. We are amateurs and they treated us with respect and tolerated our occasional "bad" shot.

Finally, this was a very nicely laid out course with elevated greens and hills and some great views. The greens rolled like carpet on concrete. You could barely touch the ball and it seemed to never stop! One hole has a lake view that simply sets in your mind and looks like one of those contest winning photos you see in magazines.

I will definitely go back, but will make sure the next time I call ahead the day before and maybe pick another day to play, and make sure that we get to have our round as planned.

Challenging layout. Great conditions from tee to green. This was a real joy to play - especially considering it was under $30. Only thing I’d change, a pet peeve, please direct the tee markers to the fairway. Awesome experience.

Course in great shape. Challenging layout with elevation changes throughout.

I’m getting back into playing after a 10+ year drought, but as a born again amateur, this course was a great mix of challenging and straightforward. From the tee boxes to the greens everything has been well maintained through a harsh summer. The greens were in great shape. My only complaint is the pace of play. I was playing as a single, and had a two to three hole cushion between the twosome in front of me, as well as the twosome behind me. By the time I hit 5 or 6, I was having to adjust my pace of play because of the twosome in front and the groups behind, quickly caught up and we bottlenecked for the last 3 holes. For a course that emphasizes pace of play, there was no one to help manage the slower players. I can understand if it was a foursome, but a twosome should be able to maintain pace. Either way, I will definitely play here again.

Played today in 95* heat and finished in 3:20. Water coolers on course had no ice so water was almost warm. No drink cart at all. Course missed out on sales of cold water and Gatorade!!! Greens were aerated yesterday but still were in really good shape. Tees and fairways were also in really good condition, and I was in most of the fairways and shot a tidy 71 ( -1) even with a bogey on the last hole.

My friend and I first time playing this course i must say it was what we expected. Fun and quite challenging for beginner players like us. (Almost 2 years of playing) greens needed some more upkeep as far as ball Mark's but that's the players not the course.

Beautiful as always. Very difficult landscape making it very challenging. We had a blast

In great shape. Very beautiful layout. A yardage book would make your round better or maybe it’s time for me to get a range finder.

Yeah that’s not going to happen so I will need a yardage book.

I was thinking about my next round here before i had finished 9 holes.

First off, this is a great golf to pksy. Fun, in great shape. challenging. Have always enjoyed course and staff. Then today......

Pace of play ridiculous- they put us out in front of a tournament in which you have thought had a million dollar purse.

No starter and for the first time ever the clubhouse staff was indifferent to a "golf now" golfer. I quote - we'll let you know when and who your golfing with. Not a peep after I left the clubhouse. Just showed up to the tee.

Slow play and 1 cart attendant on course. Which stopped on the 2nd hole and never again. There's no water on course so not having attendant and pace of play 5++× hours equals.......sucks.

Great course, horrible round of golf.

The course was in great condition and as always the staff was amazing!

I’ve played here several times as a single walking, this most recent time I was part of a large group outing, one of two going off at the same time on opposite nines. There was an even larger group that tee’d off in the afternoon but from everything I could see, this course is very receptive to these types of large groups and pace of play didn’t seem to suffer despite the crowds.

Course conditions haven’t improved a whole lot from last year but remain very good. The walkable layout is still interesting enough to make this your home course and the staff remains friendly and professional. I particularly like the fact that all the practice facilities are grouped near each other and near the clubhouse, which again helps with facilitating communication when larger groups are present.

I plan to keep coming back here as long as they keep up the good work!

*This is an update to my original review for this course on 07/11/18*

This is a good home course that’s friendly to walkers and riders alike. As one of the more affordable daily fee clubs in Richmond, The Highlands offers a good challenge and fun layout, a friendly staff, good practice facilities and good pace of play.

Conditions have been more consistent here than most courses in the area this year and only look to improve with drier and cooler weather. I’ll be back out again soon to tee it up and I recommend you do the same!

*This is an update to my original review for this course on 07/11/18*

The Highlands Golfers’ Club continues to be the best course for public walkers in the Richmond area. It’s been a month since I last played but the conditions were still very good and I’m learning to love the layout even more. My favorite spot on the golf course is the convergence of 4 holes that if you stand on your head and squint one eye kind of resembles Augusta National (in layout, not conditioning, obviously). It’s a really good test of golf while be fairly easy to navigate on foot. You’ll use every club in your bag and many shots require a good amount of strategy and risk. I really highly recommend this course and I’ll be back to play it several more times this year!

Recently opened for public play, the Highlands Golfers Club doesn’t get as much mention as it’s neighbor clubs but it still offers a great experience, especially for those looking to walk a quality course in the Richmond area.

If you like to walk for your golfing and aren’t a member of a country club here in Richmond, your choices are regulated to some rather meek municipal courses that lean more on value than quality. Highlands offers a much better experience for walkers with an diversely-designed 18-hole layout that’s well maintained.

Hilly? Yes. Exhausting to walk? Surprisingly, no. While there are a lot of elevation changes throughout the course, you’ll far more often notice the downhills than the uphills. Only a couple holes have a noticeable gap between them and there are plenty of shortcuts and bridges to keep the miles of walking down.

Back to the course: it’s a good one with a full serving of forced carries, doglegs, potato chip greens, and uneven lies everywhere. Conditions meet the expectations set by the greens fees, but don’t exceed them. The greens are full and smooth and reasonably quick. Te Bermuda fairways are in far better shape than other course in the area. Bunkers are raked but may of the tee boxes could use some softening.

Only complaint for walkers: a couple more water points would really help in this heat/humidity. Only one or two per nine so you really have to bottle it up.

Staff was friendly enough though I encountered only one of them. If you are looking for a place to walk and really enjoy a full round, this is your place to go.

First time playing Highlands and I really enjoyed it. Value for the money cannot be beat for a course that was just recently open to public play. Layout has two distinct Nines. The front is shorter than the back by a few hundred yards. Also on the front you have three Par 5's and three Par 3's. The back nine is your more traditional Par 36 layout. The front nine also features the majority of the forced carries you find on the course. Definitely play with someone familiar with the course or use a GPS to know the distances to the proper landing zone. There are five sets of tee boxes to match your game. The font nine features a Blue/Black mixed set of tees. The tee boxes are filling in nicely from the winter. The day I played there had not been much rain lately so the fairways were running out well. The Bermuda in the fairways was not totally filled in yet but give it a week and it will be great. The rough was fine for Spring golf. The greens were completely healed up from the aeration earlier in the spring. They were cut and rolled so they were running true and consistent. The only issue I noticed was some of the skirts around the green did not survive the winter. The course is well aware of this as they are cutting out the dead grass and laying new sod down. The practice facility here is nice and has everything you could need. Grass driving range, full chipping and bunker area and the practice green is large and accommodating to multiple golfers. The staff was very friendly throughout the round. Best way to make a tee time is to use their website. The Reserve restaurant is delicious to say the least. The food and service are 5 star all the way around. If you golf in the Richmond area I have yet to find an all around better value than here.

Wow is this a course that has a lot of character. It was recently opened up for public play, so a few of my friends and I decided to check it out.

The course was in decent condition overall. Since it is opened to the public, the greens have gone downhill, but the fairways and bunkers are in solid shape. Tee boxes are mowed to a good height and the rough is relatively thin.

Now, this might be one of the most interesting designs that I have ever played.

The first two holes are nice little holes that offer little resistance and are fairly birdie-able.

The fun really begins on the third hole. It is a mid-length par 5 (525 yards) that has a semi-blind tee shot. Now what you do not notice from the teeing area, is that the left side of the fairway completely falls off. Anything hit on the left side is almost certainly gone. Once you get to the end of the fairway, you see the hole about 100 feet below. That's right the hole drops about 100 feet. So if you hit a good drive down the middle, there is a chance that you are staring at a 7 iron into the green. You have to carry your approach over a hazard and onto an elevated green. Once you walk off the hole you will think that it could not get crazier...that's until you walk onto the fourth tee box.

The fourth hole is a semi-short par 4 (375 yards) that has a split fairway. At the bottom of the hill is a creek and about 60 feet above is a green complex that slopes as much as any on the course. Behind the green is out of bounds and in front is a ravine so your approach shot better find the putting surface.

The fifth is a long (200 yards) uphill par 3 guarded by a deep hazard on three sides. The green is tri leveled and will send any shot missed left or long into the hazard.

The sixth and seventh holes are birdie holes, as six is a driveable par 4 and seven is a reachable par 5. The course gets more traditional in design with a few interesting holes, but the ones mentioned above are certainly the highlights of this track.

I would say this is a must-play although it isn't the cheapest course out there and it is way out in deep, deep Chesterfield.

Definitely, recommend this course to you, but you owe it to yourself to play with someone who has already played it.