Best Courses between Richmond, VA & Charlotte, NC

[ellswrth]

I'll be traveling between Richmond and Charlotte and have time to stop and play one or two courses along the way. Based on reviews on dgcoursereview.com it looks like Bryan Park in Richmond is good.

Which of these is worth a stop? (I filtered the courses on my route by 18 holes or more and 3.5 stars or better)


Valley Springs Park, Durham, NC
UNC DGC, Chapel Hill, NC
Cedarock Park, Burlington, NC
Johnson Street Park, High Point NC
Old Plank Road DGC, Thomasville, NC 27360

I'm already planning to play Renaissance, Hornet's Nest, Rock Hill and maybe Brackett's Bluff when I get to the Charlotte area.

[gotcha]

Cedarock Park in Burlington is highly recommended. Two side-by-side courses in a beautiful, historic park. The Cedarock course plays in the open with rolling hills while the Wellspring course is short and technical through the woods.

[sandalbagger]

Don't forget to play Reedy Creek in Charlotte as well. A real fun shorter course.

I've heard nothing but great things about Burlington, NC.

High Point, NC is a pretty cool course as well.

[Jeff_LaG]

Originally Posted by gotcha

Cedarock Park in Burlington is highly recommended. Two side-by-side courses in a beautiful, historic park. The Cedarock course plays in the open with rolling hills while the Wellspring course is short and technical through the woods.

The Wellspring course is a pitch ‘n’ putt, but a really nice one. I enjoyed all the elevation changes, and all the pretty bridges over the dry stream beds. The thing I love at this course though is when you walk out of the woods on hole#16 and gaze down from the long tee pad of hole seventeen. What an impressive sight: At 720 feet downhill, and with a picturesque pond on the right-hand side, this is hands-down one the prettiest disc golf holes I’ve ever seen. Throwing a long drive under three large mature trees and then an accurate upshot, scoring a birdie 3 on this true pro par four is quite a joy!

[gotcha]

^^^ What Jeff said!

Wellspring #17 is my favorite hole in the Tar Heel state!

[wyattcoggin]

Originally Posted by ellswrth

I'll be traveling between Richmond and Charlotte and have time to stop and play one or two courses along the way. Based on reviews on dgcoursereview.com it looks like Bryan Park in Richmond is good.

Which of these is worth a stop? (I filtered the courses on my route by 18 holes or more and 3.5 stars or better)


Valley Springs Park, Durham, NC
UNC DGC, Chapel Hill, NC
Cedarock Park, Burlington, NC
Johnson Street Park, High Point NC
Old Plank Road DGC, Thomasville, NC 27360

I'm already planning to play Renaissance, Hornet's Nest, Rock Hill and maybe Brackett's Bluff when I get to the Charlotte area.

Johnson St. Home course of two multi-time Jr World champions Short, long and Gold Tee pads.

UNC - one of the best courses any where.

Cedar rock two courses. one open. one wooded. both must play courses.

Valley Springs Andrew and I only play it in tournaments. if we are in the area we play UNC.

OPR - Private course. favors leftys or right hand side arm. very tight. heavy woods. very technical course.

hope this helps. I you would like a guide for Johnson st. (Jsp) pm me.

[davidsauls]

I've only played two---Johnson St. & Cedar Rock, both worthwhile---so can't help finding the best course. However, in Burlington you can get in 2 courses with only 1 stop, if that's of any value. They are next to each other in the same park, and the courses are completely different from each other.

[DiscHof]

About an hour West of Richmond is Walnut Creek Park in Charlottesville. Not sure if you're headed South on 95 or West on 64, but Walnut Creek is 15-20 mins off of 64. I'll leave my home course bias aside, but point out that it has received favorable reviews on dgcoursereview. Also, we just had our annual tournament and the course is in great shape.

As for the other courses you mentioned, I haven't played many, but the two-fer in Burlington is fun, and Charlotte has TONS of great options.

Enjoy!

[xterramatt]

Zebulon, NC if it's not too far out of your way would definitely be on my list.

[ellswrth]

Thanks guys, I'm gonna try to hit Zebulon & the two courses Burlington. I'm expecting cool, but not freezing temperatures around the second week of November. Sound accurate?

[disc54]

[QUOTE=ellswrth;1397975]I'll be traveling between Richmond and Charlotte and have time to stop and play one or two courses along the way. Based on reviews on dgcoursereview.com it looks like Bryan Park in Richmond is good.

Which of these is worth a stop? (I filtered the courses on my route by 18 holes or more and 3.5 stars or better)


Valley Springs Park, Durham, NC
UNC DGC, Chapel Hill, NC
Cedarock Park, Burlington, NC
Johnson Street Park, High Point NC
Old Plank Road DGC, Thomasville, NC 27360

I'm already planning to play Renaissance, Hornet's Nest, Rock Hill and maybe Brackett's Bluff when I get to the Charlotte area.[/QUOT

Renaissance Gold is AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jeff_LaG]

On my way down to Charlotte, NC in a few weeks, are there any must-play courses which have been installed since 2009?

(Please consider also that I haven't decided definitively yet whether I'll take the I-85 route from Richmond...I may opt to take I-81 south through Virginia to I-77 south. Any world class par 60+ courses on that route?)

[gotcha]

Jeff,

Have you played Hawk Hollow?

[Jeff_LaG]

Jerry,

Along with Renaissance Park in Charlotte, Hawk Hollow has been a glaring omission on my disc golf course resume for quite some time. I had originally planned to get down to Biscoe's course even back when it was known as "Pleasant Run' but those plans fell through and my travels just never took me in the area in recent years.

Since my original post, I am no longer flying solo down to Charlotte and am car-pooling. Unfortunately, our plans now take us on I-81 down to Charlotte and the Hawk Hollow course would be far out of the way. While in Charlotte, there are a number of courses used for Pro/Am Worlds which I want to play because after the competition it will likely be a long time before I'm back in the area, and so if I play a Charlotte course on Sunday July 22nd after competition concludes, I would certainly not be able to play Hawk Hollow on the way back to Pennsylvania.

I'm definitely hoping to get to Hawk Hollow in the next 2 years, especially now that I'm Masters age and could possibly compete in the annual match play competition there, or just for a casual round. Still, we'll see how my trip goes, and plans are always fluid, and I may look to send Biscoe an e-mail to see if the Hawk Hollow course is available for play on Sunday July 22 on my way home.

[MTL21676]

Unfortanently there are not many par +60 courses in this area, Jeff. If you were able to take a day and swing over to Wilmington, Castle Hayne would be WELL worth the trip (legit Par 65). ut other than that, there are no 18 hole SSA's above 57 in this state except in Charlotte.

Outside of the aformentioned, your best bet is Creekside Park in Archdale, NC. It hasn't been in the ground long, so I know you haven't played it.

Creekside recently hosted an A Tier event (the Archdale trinity of commerce open) - par on the course was listed at 63, but 57 would be a much more accurate number. It's about 1 hour north of charlotte and about 3 minutes off I-85.

It's VERY tight. Fair, but tight. It's a lot of birdie putts if you are throwing well and a lot of scrambling if you are not.

[gotcha]

Originally Posted by MTL21676

It's VERY tight. Fair, but tight.

If a Carolinian is stating it's tight.....it's tight.

[MTL21676]

Lots of tricky angles too.

I shot like 56 or so and wasn't upset.

[Jeff_LaG]

Originally Posted by MTL21676

If you were able to take a day and swing over to Wilmington, Castle Hayne would be WELL worth the trip (legit Par 65). ut other than that, there are no 18 hole SSA's above 57 in this state except in Charlotte.

Robert,

Ten years ago I vacationed out on Ocracoke Island and then took the ferry back to the mainland. I played the long tees at Barnet Park in Kinston, Zebulon Community Park, Cedar Hills, Buckhorn at Harris County Lake, Wellspring and Cedarock in Burlington, and finally, the "Bluedicrous" tees at Johnson Street Park in High Point before heading back to PA. The PDGA course statistics page isn't active anymore and so I can't verify if these courses were SSA 57 or above (intuitively, I think they fell just short) but they were still par 58-60 or so, and very challenging and enjoyable courses with multiple pro par four and pro par five holes, and the kind of course I'd be looking to experience again.

Again, a lot will depend on what the driver of the chariot prefers to do on Sunday the 22nd, but a brand new par 57 course only 3 minutes off I-85 does sound enticing. Thanks for the tip!

[MTL21676]

Originally Posted by Jeff_LaG

Robert,

Ten years ago I vacationed out on Ocracoke Island and then took the ferry back to the mainland. I played the long tees at Barnet Park in Kinston, Zebulon Community Park, Cedar Hills, Buckhorn at Harris County Lake, Wellspring and Cedarock in Burlington, and finally, the "Bluedicrous" tees at Johnson Street Park in High Point before heading back to PA. The PDGA course statistics page isn't active anymore and so I can't verify if these courses were SSA 57 or above (intuitively, I think they fell just short) but they were still par 58-60 or so, and very challenging and enjoyable courses with multiple pro par four and pro par five holes, and the kind of course I'd be looking to experience again.

Again, a lot will depend on what the driver of the chariot prefers to do on Sunday the 22nd, but a brand new par 57 course only 3 minutes off I-85 does sound enticing. Thanks for the tip!

Barnet long then was about a 53 or 54 SSA. Zebulon is about 50. Cedar Hills is 49. Longs at Buckhorn are about 54. Wellspring is about 50 and Cedarrock (then 20 holes) was about 58 or so, but it's 20 holes. The Bludes at Johnson were about 54.

But that's just SSA's. Par at these are all in the uper 50's (64 for Cedarrock).

Cedarrock is actually 18 holes now. They took four par 3's and made them into two par 4's. It's a legit Par 60 now. Great course.

Hope you check out Archdale. It's probably the only course not in Charlotte on your trip that I can think of that you haven't yet played within your perameters. And it's literally 3 min off 85, which certainly helps.

[gotcha]

Isn't Cedarock spelled with one "r", MTL?

I lived in Greensboro for three years ('97-'99) and had four choices for local disc golf courses:

Barber Park ( 6 miles)
Johnson Street (10 miles)
Horizons Park (36 miles)
Cedarock Park (39 miles)

More often than not, my wife and I were driving the 39 miles to Cedarock Park. That place is awesome. There were many times the Wellspring course was packed with players and the Cedarock course would be void of humans. The wife preferred the pitch-n-putt Wellspring course, but she would often choose to play Cedarock because we would have the big course to ourselves! Then there were the times we simply flipped a coin....

[haroldduvall]

For those traveling through the mountains of North Carolina or down Interstate 77, y'all may want to try Ashe County Park in Jefferson North Carolina. The long tees to the long pins are at least par 60. Take care, Harold

[davidsauls]

Originally Posted by haroldduvall

For those traveling through the mountains of North Carolina or down Interstate 77, y'all may want to try Ashe County Park in Jefferson North Carolina. The long tees to the long pins are at least par 60. Take care, Harold

Risky. It might take a little shine of the Charlotte courses to play Ashe County first.

[tyson99duke]

If coming down 77 Ashe County if coming 220 or 29 off 81, hit up Sontag or Lake Reidsville.

[Jeff_LaG]

We ended up making a spur of the moment decision - searching the PDGA Course Directory, I found the Randolph Park DGC in Dublin, VA, which is just south of Blacksburg and very, very conveniently located just off highway I-81. It’s a relatively new course, having just been established in 2008 but it’s a very nice pro par 58 track. Playing from the longest set of tees (blue) I thought this was an excellent mix of wooded and open holes and never got boring. Some of the blue tees were a little difficult to find and we actually ended up playing from the white tee on the pro par four sixth hole and the pro par five thirteenth hole, but that did not diminish our enjoyment of the course. For a Pennsylvania woods golfer, I found the woods on the front nine to be tough but fair and would be a good preparation for the Charlotte courses; however, my traveling companion Bill Newman felt that the wooded fairways were just a little too narrow for his liking. I can only think of a few small areas for improvement which relate mostly due to distance and par assessments. For example, the 425 ft twelfth hole is listed as a par four from the blue tees but this an easy two-shot par 3 hole. And at 465 ft but playing severely downhill, the fourteenth hole is reachable for a deuce and nowhere even close to par four consideration, even if the drainage channels around the basket were considered OB. On the flip side, the 590 ft pro par four sixteenth hole is just so well protected in the woods that I don’t see scores of birdie three as a very realistic possibility on a consistent basis. Both Bill I felt that the polehole should be shortened by about 40-50 feet to allow blue level (~950) rated players (for which it was presumably designed for) a better opportunity at birdie.

Bottom line is that with a 3.65 rating over at DGcoursereview.com, I feel this course has loads of potential, and with a little adjustment it could easily crack the 4.0 line and be considered a course WELL above average. I was certainly glad that we stopped in to check it out, and I’d definitely love to check it out again, especially if the retention ponds on holes#11-12 and 13-14 are full with water.

[tyson99duke]

Jeff,
Randolph is an awesome choice (as is Golden Hills in Christiansburg, which is 20 miles north of Dublin on 81). Randolph is a great mix of wooden and long bombs on the back. The course was on the Spike Hyzer Tour earlier this year. Here are the results to see how yall did.

MJ Won - http://www.pdga.com/tournament_results/93754/Open

Hope you enjoyed NC.

Good to hear yall had a fun time!

Tyson

[tyson99duke]

BTW...Put Ashe County on your bucket list