The Golf Club at The Highlands

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.

Reviewed recently, but was first time played course and played well so wasn't sure if my play or course was happier with . I really do like this course . As title says , this course is aptly named The Highlands . The course contours , slopes , elevation changes really create a great challenge and experience . Course is in great shape tee to green . Traps are good , greens very good shape . Find the clientele is excellent as well . Friendly and course stays good because of our fellow golfers care . Find very few ball marks on greens , traps are always raked so everyone seems to be taking care of the facilities . Couple chipping greens , very nice putting surface and very good driving range. Quickly becoming one of my top three places in our market to play . The layout is quite interesting and makes for a great challenge and much different from most courses in the area .

Challenging , hilly and a lot of elevation changes . This course was surprising for the Richmond market . Play numerous courses in the area and we do get a little role, but this course has numerous elevation changes , contours and slopes . Golf partner even committed never had a flat lie , laughed explained yes need to be in fairway . Great layout with plenty of doglegs each way , some holes with trouble in front of green so pay attention to yardage to set up layups or approaches . Greens very good condition with some tiers but the real challenge is the slopes and elevation changes . New to public play so not crowded and staff very personable and helpful . Had a great day and looking forward to challenging ourselves again here soon . Oh , the practice facilities are excellent so give yourself time to hit the range and chipping and putting surfaces .