Our Picks for The 10 Best Golf courses in Virginia
1. The Olde Farm Golf Club
Address: 16751 Old Jonesboro Rd, Bristol, VA 24202, USA
Type of field: Links
Course access: Private
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 127
Course Rating: 73.4
Total par (men’s tees): 71
Total yardage (men’s tees): 6,885
Scorecard: Link
The Olde Farm Golf Club this Bobby Weed-designed course opened for play in 2000. Perhaps Golf Digest’s Ron Whitten said it best after naming The Olde Farm Best New Private Course of 2000: “The Olde Farm, Bobby Weed’s first Best New winning design, is old school yet representative of the future of golf.” The links style course features bentgrass greens, tees, and fairways, with rough consisting of Kentucky Bluegrass.
2. Kinloch Golf Club
Address: 100 Kinloch Lane, Manakin-Sabot, Virginia 23103, Goochland County
Type of field: Parkland
Course access: Private
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 139
Course Rating: 74.8
Total par (men’s tees): 72
Total yardage (men’s tees): 7,203
Scorecard: Link
The club was selected as Golf Digest’s “Best New Course” the year it opened and has been on numerous “best of” lists in its 15 years of existence. Opened in 2001, Lester George and Vinny Giles designed the course and it’s mandatory to use a caddie when playing Kinloch. Kinloch Golf Club hosted the 2011 U.S. Senior Amateur and will host the 2024 U.S. Mid-Amateur.
3. The Homestead (Cascades)
Address: 1766 Homestead Dr Hot Springs, VA 24445-2910 United States
Type of field: Parkland
Course access: Public
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 137
Course Rating: 73
Total par (men’s tees): 70
Total yardage (men’s tees): 6,679
Scorecard: Link
Homestead lies at the foothills of Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains. This William S. Flynn-designed course is known as America’s premier mountain resort and a haven for the sports enthusiast. William S. Flynn, who was a keen athlete in his youth, designed the Cascades, the Homestead’s flagship course. Robert Trent Jones renovated the Cascades course in 1961.
4. Robert Trent Jones Golf Club
Address: 1 Turtle Point Drive, Gainesville, Virginia (VA) 20155, USA
Type of field: Links
Course access: Private
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 144
Course Rating: 76.1
Total par (men’s tees): 72
Total yardage (men’s tees): 7,289
Scorecard: Link
Robert Trent Jones Golf Club was founded by the legendary golf course designer Robert Trent Jones “while conducting an aerial site survey for another project,” and it was designed by him, too. He called this course “my masterpiece,” and it opened for play in April 1991. The course hosted the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994, and again in 1996, 2000, and 2005.
5. Ballyhack Golf Club
Address: 3699 Pitzer Rd, Roanoke, VA 24014, USA
Type of field: Links
Course access: Private
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 110
Course Rating: 70
Total par (men’s tees): 72
Total yardage (men’s tees): 7,294
Scorecard: Link
Ballyhack is a name to remember. The Lester George designed golf course, which opened for play in 2009 is billed as a Scottish Highland-type design. Lester George knows a thing or two about designing top Virginian golf courses. He left a legacy at the Kinloch Golf Club in 2001 and his creation at Ballyhack has the potential to follow suit.
6. Highland At Primland
Address: 2000 Busted Rock Road, Meadows of Dan, Vigrinia (VA) 24120, USA
Type of field: Links
Course access: Public
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 150
Course Rating: 75.1
Total par (men’s tees): 72
Total yardage (men’s tees): 7,053
Scorecard: Link
The Highland Course at Primland sits atop a mountain plateau overlooking some of the most unusual scenery in America, a deep river valley dotted with tall spirals of rock called the Pinnacles of the Dan River. The course design by veteran British architect Donald Steel. The course was constructed to the highest standards with bent grass used on greens and fairways.
7. Washington Golf & Country Club
Address: 3017 N Glebe Rd, Arlington, Virginia 22207, Arlington County
Type of field: Links
Course access: Private
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 132
Course Rating: 71.6
Total par (men’s tees): 70
Total yardage (men’s tees): 6,309
Scorecard: Link
Known as the Club of the Presidents, Washington Golf Club was incorporated on January 1, 1894, although evidence exists that it was organized a year earlier in December 1892. A Donald Ross design that was later modified by William Flynn, the course at Washington Golf and Country Club has been re-imagined by Renaissance Golf Design.
8. Trump National Golf Club
Address: 20391 Lowes Island Boulevard, Potomac Falls, Virginia (VA) 20165, USA
Type of field: Links
Course access: Private
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 132
Course Rating: 72.8
Total par (men’s tees): 72
Total yardage (men’s tees): 6,902
Scorecard: Link
The Championship Course was designed by Tom Fazio, and the Riverview course was added in 1999, when the club was still known as the Lowes Island Club. This course became known during Donald Trump’s presidency, because he golfed there on weekends when he was not traveling.
9. The Virginian Golf Club
Address: 22512 Clubhouse Ridge, Bristol, VA 24202, USA
Type of field: Links
Course access: Private
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 130
Course Rating: 74.4
Total par (men’s tees): 72
Total yardage (men’s tees): 7,110
Scorecard: Link
The Virginian Golf Club, designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1992. Laid out over rolling terrain in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. The course hosted the US Senior Amateur Championships in 2003. The Virginian Golf Club is a wonderfully member-friendly course where the fairways are wide and forgiving, often appearing to play downhill from many of the tees.
10. Farmington Country Club
Address: 1625 Country Club Cir, Charlottesville, Virginia 22901, Albemarle County
Type of field: Parkland
Course access: Private
Length of play: 18-hole course
Slope index: 125
Course Rating: 64.3
Total par (men’s tees): 65
Total yardage (men’s tees): 5,154
Scorecard: Link
The estate of Farmington dates back to the American Revolution, but Farmington Country Club was founded in the Roaring Twenties. The octagonal east wing of the clubhouse, constructed in 1802 near the University of Virginia as an addition to a pre-1780 structure, was designed by Thomas Jefferson. University of Virginia President Edgar F. Shannon Jr. resigned from the club in the late 1960s.
