Rock Harbor Golf Course - Rock

A very disappointing day. First, the course was in horrible shape for the time of year. The greens were healing from aeration so I get that 100% but, when you can't differentiate the fairway from the rough as you're teeing off, there's an issue.....the fairways were a "divot farm" and overgrown. The rough had dead grass clippings all over them and if that wasn't bad enough, the over abundance of clover blossoms were. I've played this course before (2 years ago) and it was in immaculate condition. For the cost of a non member round versus what we received were definitely on the opposite ends of expectations. Second (and my biggest complaint) is the inconsiderate grounds crew. NEVER EVER in the 25+ years of playing golf have I encountered a grounds keeper that didn't stop mowing while you were playing through. 2 separate occasions and 2 different grounds keepers on 2 different holes had no respect/etiquette. They kept mowing, in our play, and were 100% distraction and a safety hazard to us. And then, on one of the same holes as we were chipping on to the green, a 3rd groundskeeper pulled up to the green in their utility cart and started up their leaf blower and proceeded to blow off the cart path from debris. CMON Man!!! This course is very unique in how it's laid out, challenging yet fair to all skill levels, breathtaking views but I'm sorry, I will not return to this course nor will I recommend it to anyone . 100% disappointing.

It's a nit pick but except for the fringes around the greens this course is in great shape. I know some people say the fairways are a little long, but that's been the case for years. The greens are outstanding - faster than the last time I played. Some blind shots so you need to drive up the fairway to take a look before you tee off. If you live near Winchester you have a lot of good courses to choose from. Rock Harbor is definitely a must play.

Got there early to hit range balls. They tell me the range is closed because they have no balls. After a 5 1/2 hour round I was done. Course conditions was ok at best!!

Extremely disappointed. After reading the reviews, we were excited to play here. Complete let down. Course layout is possibly the worst I’ve ever played and I’ve played over 200 different courses. The conditions were fair, at best. Fairways were long, some basically like a nice course’s first cut. Has clearly lacked the watering needed over the last few hot weeks. The holes intertwine with the opposite course frequently and is easy to be unsure of which direction next hole is. The only part of the course in good shape were the greens. Rolled true and fairly smooth, a little slow for my taste.

The layout, again, the worst. Nearly every other hole you are left wondering where you are supposed to hit your next shot. Let’s not even get started on a 714 yard par 5...

Not worth anywhere near the $73 to play. I would not come back to play for any more than $20 round.

Rock Harbor continues to offer a unique and wildly fun layout at a fantastic value. The sheer variety of holes will keep you entertained for hours and hours.

Because I live 3 hours away I try to plan to play all 36 holes here whenever I come up. If you plan it right (walk the first 18 then ride the second as a replay) you can get both courses in for under $60 during the week, an unbeatable value.

The courses were in the best shape I've ever seen. Fairways are still a little shaggy/long for my taste but the trade-off is that they are nice and lush despite being exposed to the sun all day as there are few holes with substantial tree cover. The greens were rolling at a medium speed and nice and smooth too.

COVID restrictions have been relaxed a bit with much needed water coolers on the course and no noodles in the cups (I still left the flagsticks alone). the staff I encountered was very friendly and the food was pretty good too.

Rock Harbor remains one of the best courses that few people have even heard of never mind played. Maybe some day I'll move back up this way so I can play it more, that would be a real treat!

The food is excellent if you can get waited on. The girls want to talk to friends instead of waiting on you. The pro shop guys are clueless. Not very professional. There not very well trained employees. Bad management!! Course is ok conditions at best.

Mixed feelings about this layout located atop a huge working quarry, primary design features lots of natural rock outcroppings and man-placed rocks and boulders everywhere. Course itself was in great shape despite tough wet summer. My beef is with confusing layout with two 18 holes courses crisscrossing in the same space. Despite their noble attempt at signage, I got lost frequently and had no idea which holes I was on.
I actually played one wrong green coming off a par 5. Weird and unnecessary, golf is hard enough. But, course is interesting and worth a look. Your take may be totally different. Just bring along some bread crumbs.

*This is a combined review for the Rock and Boulder courses*

Rock Harbor GC continues to provide the most creative and unique course layout anywhere in Virginia. And what it lacked in conditioning over the past several months has now improved greatly, making it a must-play destination.

The conditions are noticeably better than my visit last year and far better than what was described by the last reviewer back in May. The greens, fairways, rough and tees are all lush, green, and smooth (though the fairway grass remains too high for some). The course super has clearly put a lot of effort and money into the courses' many bunkers by adding a lot of fluffy sand but the heavy rains from the past few months have been working hard against those efforts. Even still, most of the bunkers are in very good condition.

The layouts of the Rock and Boulder courses remain as different as they are diverse. You’ve never played anything like it here and while some complain that a few holes here and there are tricked up, I see them as a welcome change to the same old designs so many courses employ. Here they really embrace the unique quarry setting and give so much character and identity to a rather humble course.

The cost to play here is right on par with other courses and when you factor in all that you get for that price, the value is easy to see. My recommendation for the best experience is to walk the Rock course and then pay a replay rate for the Boulder course with a cart (and a yardage book!). That plus a bucket of balls will set you back $63, not bad at all for a full day of fun golf!

*This is a combined review for both Rock and Boulder courses*

Rock Harbor Golf Course is a place that will redefine what you consider to be a creative course layout. 36 holes of character, amusement, and style that now even Meadow Farms can’t match.

“Course Layout” is one of six ratings categories here on Golf Advisor but to me, it makes up about a third of my overall grade. If I’m driving a long way and paying a decent amount to be outside in the heat with no shade, it best be entertaining to play. Thankfully, Rock Harbor has course creativity and imagination in spades. There are two 18-hole courses, the Rock course (which I had previously played several times) and the newly completed Boulder course, which I had never played before.

I decided to play them back-to-back, and it was a thrilling experience. The Rock course features a fairly tough island green par-3 (180 yards from the blue tees), a majestic, heart-shaped, 220-yard par-3, and two par-5s that have greens hidden completely from the fairway. By comparison, the Boulder course is more traditional in layout, yet still has two split-fairway par 5s (one of which has a giant bunker in the middle of the green) and two short par-3’s over water. While it’s hard to pick a favorite, I really love the abundance of par-3s and par-5s on the Boulder course (three of each) and the breathtaking view of the adjacent quarry you get as you arrive at its challenging par-3 8th.

A word of caution on the Boulder course for those playing for the first time: it wasn’t available on my golf app, and while the starter gives you VERY detailed course overview, unless you take notes you’ll likely get confused as the course is very much intertwined with the Rock course and yardages are hard to judge. Spend the $6 on a yardage book, it’s very helpful.

Beginners won’t like the number of holes with water in play but may appreciate the relative lack of trees to hit into. Part of what makes the course so unique in its style is the massive boulders sprinkled throughout the course, some in play, many not in play. The level of detail they have put into this course is impressive, especially on the newer Boulder course. For instance, on holes with elevated greens, the flagsticks are a few feet taller so you can see them from further out, a nice touch. Lastly, the fairway “bunkers” they use here are actually flat waste areas thinly covered in finely-crushed gray gravel. They can be quite large but are easy to hit out of.
My biggest gripe (and it’s pretty minor) during my round was course conditions. They are far from bad, but in the past I’ve criticized a course for having a bland layout that didn’t match the immaculate conditions and here I feel the fantastic style and layout of the course demands top-notch conditions. For the price you pay, the conditions are fair. The greens are semi-fast with the perfect severity of slope in the undulations. However, the bunkers are just ok and for the first 12 holes I played, I couldn’t tell if I had landed my ball in the fairway or rough; the grass was that high! Thankfully, they eventually got the mowers out and things improved. One thing I did appreciate during my 90+ degree round was the many water points that always had full coolers and even buckets to dip your towel in.

The staff here is friendly and detailed in pre-round instruction. Walking is permitted on both courses but only recommended for the Rock course. Pace of play was very good on the day I played, even though I saw many people on the course I was never held up in 36 holes.

GolfNow deals don’t appear to be available anymore but I paid under $60 to walk 18 and then replay with a cart, not bad at all. Off-course amenities are also excellent with not only a driving range but also a pitching range, big practice green, and great food.

Winchester is a decent drive for most people but it’s well worth it to me. I live over an hour away and I always come up at least once a year. Play this course, and have fun!

good course lots of water though great course to play if you not a beginner

Tee time was 9:00 a.m. on Saturday May 2 with 8 golfers. Made the turn at 12:10. Spoke with the Marshall who informed my group that we haven't seen slow play yet. Course was great but a 3 hour side is the reason they will never see me again.

My wife and I tried out Rock Harbor Golf Course this week, and found it to be memorable. A second 18 is in the process of being added, though it wasn’t clear to me which it was, as we were sent out to play “The Boulder’s” front nine and “The Rock’s” back nine. All of the course seemed to me to be under construction still, to varying degrees. There’s a lot of driving between holes, and though it is beautiful out there and the riding is fun, it is awfully confusing despite there being a lot of temporary signage and a staff of (wonderful) marshalls out there directing traffic. More than once we ended up nose to nose with other carts on a cart path, we were able to reason out which of two pins to shoot at on a large double green (Boulder #4), and on #18 a marshall arrived just in time to tell us “no, not that tee box”. We experienced some good natured “do you have the treasure map” from other lost groups, but also wore the patience of some folks behind us who clearly knew where they were going. Surprisingly and very unfortunately, we suffered from lack of any sort of “treasure map”. A range card; a score card with hole layouts; even a hole diagram on each tee box would have been helpful, particularly as there are a lot of elevation changes leading to blind shots. I’m sure these things are coming. Range markers on the fairways are scarce, and for some reason our normally reliable Skycaddie GPS seemed as confused as we were. www.rockharborgolf.com has a really super virtual tour of each hole, and as we did have an I-pad with us we tried to make some use of it, but we had folks behind us and it just wasn’t practical to spend much time looking at it.

The course itself is spectacular – I mean it is really going to be something! Each hole presents unique challenges, though again you lose a lot of it if isn’t clear to you what the challenges are until you are in them. One of a kind highlights for me were the artificial turf tee boxes off lake platforms on Rock #12, and the super-elevated tee on Rock #17. I was looking forward to the island par three, but that was not on our dance card. The “unfinished” aspects of the course are esthetics; the ground itself is quite ready and in excellent shape all around. The rough is thick. The greens are enormous, heavily contoured, and wicked fast. I came in seven over my handicap, and felt real lucky to do so. In my opinion it is a very difficult course to score on.

I certainly look forward to playing this course again. I only hope it is not priced out of my reach when it is “finished”.

It was very windy on this day. The course was a bit challenging to navigate. Follow the color arrows.

After walking boulder course, I decided to make a 9 holes in rock course with twilight walking. The rock course is easy for walking compared to boulder course. The layout is tricky with waste bunker, mounted green and some water hazards. The layout is very beautiful and worth for travelling. The hole 13 and 14 is extremely blind layout, some golfers might feel the course is not fair. I totally recommend rock course layout is better than boulder for 220 driver golfers. Also 17th green with heart shaped is worth visiting.

Overall Rock Harbor is a very fine course. The poor condition of it's greens makes it only average!

Great time, beautiful location and friendly staff. Worth every penny.

The course is above average in difficulty. On some of the holes, it definitely challenges you to focus on best effort in order to scorel. The rough is beautiful but devastating to your club head and requires careful attention and execution. Greens require astute putting reads and best effort putting stroke else you fall prey to the elevation and undulation pitfalls. I highly recommend this course to all golfers who are looking for gorgeous natural surroundings and challenging hole layout. .

This was my first playing at this course. It was fun and challenging at the same time. There are actually 2 courses there. We played the "Rock" course, which was the course that had all 18 holes open for play. The "boulder" course was open but not all 18 holes. They had some holes under construction, but if you played that section, you would double back to some holes that had 2 pin locations on the green. I have no doubt that when those holes are done with their construction that the "boulder" course will be fantastic too. There are so many things to look at, from the very well maintained fairways, to the bridges over the ponds, and the spectacular rock features they have. I have just got back into golf after about a 10 year break, and this course is one of my favorites so far. I will absolutely be back to play again at this course.