Triangle, VA

Forest Valley DGC

4.55(based on 3 reviews)
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17 0
I Didn't Like It
Bronze level trusted reviewer
Experience: 35.9 years 64 played 11 reviews
5.00 star(s)

Clark's big fat tall brother. drive by

Reviewed: Played on:Dec 2, 2023 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

The technical challenge of a long, beautiful course. It's ALL trees with lots of elevation and very challenging. The sight lines from each tee pad are good and the fairways are 'fair' for a technical course.

Each hole has 3 large carpeted tee pads (with nice signage) and two baskets. That's 6 possible configurations, all very unique from each other. Each 9-hole loop starts/ends at the parking lot. Cool amenities include: a 9-hole pitch-and-putt warm up course, 2 big throwing nets, 2 practice baskets, and plenty of parking. Convenient location - a half-mile off I-95 Exit 150B.

Cons:

Leaves accumulate in the Fall months and it's easy to go underneath them - spot holes and throw bright colored plastic. The course is still 'new' and there are small stumps that can be toe stubbers or trip hazards.

If you are able-bodied and physically fit, there are no significant cons at this course.

Other Thoughts:

My bias: I like technical courses with elevation and Biscoe's designs. I hope he's not irked by the inevitable comparisons to Clark's Run. They both have 9-hole warm up courses! While similar, Forest Valley is clearly the bigger brother.

Four of the 6 configurations at FV are grueling rounds. Any tees to the Gold (long) baskets plus Gold (long) tees to Blue (short) baskets - these are all big, tough rounds. Play short or medium tees to Blue baskets if you can't do 'grueling'. Gold tees to Gold baskets is crazy, esp. on 16. I've played medium tees to Gold baskets twice, shot 82 both times, and felt 82 years old crawling back to my car from 18s basket.

Holes 15, 16, and 18 are a cruel way to end a grueling round, esp. the walk from 18s baskets to the parking lot. TIP: Play the back first. The back is much harder and it's better to go into 15-18 with something left.

I drive I-95 a lot, so I liked hearing and seeing it on a few of the holes. I liked seeing the Marine Corps museum from 16s baskets. I liked the lake and that it's nearly impossible to throw into it. I liked that the Blue tees (medium) have blue carpet. The 2 throwing nets at the parking lot are very cool.

If I was 26 years old, I would think this place is heaven. I still love little brother Clark and gave Clark's Run my only 5 star rating. Forest Valley is slightly better than Clark's Run so I'm also giving it a 5 star rating. For what it is, it's up there with 'the best of the best'. Being a half-mile from an I-95 exit ensures it becomes a 'destination' course.

I don't have the game to play more than 2 configurations at FV, but I'm glad Biscoe keeps building them this challenging.
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18 0
DumfriesLizzie
Gold level trusted reviewer
Experience: 5.6 years 111 played 102 reviews
4.00 star(s)

Only Billy goats need apply!!

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Aug 27, 2023 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Very beautiful and expansive course. Despite sitting next to the loud I-95 highway, it's a very peaceful setting. Probably because there are few people there. You can play your game without much (if any) interruption. There are two quiet, secret lagoons (reservoirs actually, for the ball golf course's water system – no doubt) that don't come into play but are lovely to look at as are many of the fairways ... especially signature fairway no. 10 with its terraced tees and deeply rolling, sloping, wide fairway.

It's a very challenging course, primarily because of the elevation and the navigation among the holes themselves. The fairways are often pretty straightforward (just a matter of flexing around a lot of trees – smirk), but getting to them (or getting up or down from them) will also be a major challenge.

Some fairways have distinct interest: the pro-level and absolutely-brutal, long-uphill no. 8; the aforementioned, turning/diving no. 10; the tight, down-then-up, steep no. 15; the rather magnificent, ascending, and get-able no. 16 (from white and blue tees anyway); and the hard-gravity pull of falling no. 18 (which ends with uphill throws to definite rollaway greens).

It's also encouraging to have easier holes sprinkled among the tougher ones to just give you something of a break. That is the case from the white tees and some of the blue tees. Maybe less so from the gold tees? I don't know.

The warm-up area has two practice baskets and two driving nets. One rarely sees the latter at a disc golf course.

All pads are now finished and there are now excellent hole signs (as well as a big course map sign/kiosk in the practice area). I cannot remember much about the directional signs from my most-recent visit. I know there are at least a few that are more permanent.

There are lots of benches, creatively made from tree stumps (thank you!) and partial staircases cut into the descending part of the fairways no. 10 and 18 (th-th-thank you, thank you!).

This course is indeed a Clark's Run South (basically) for us locals. I most assuredly appreciate it.

Cons:

I had alot of construction-phase cons in fall 2022/winter 2023 that no longer apply. The course is now finished. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was in June 2023. So my complaints have been trimmed down here.

Of course, none of us like paying greens fees. While $10 is not the end of the world, $20 for all day probably isn't a popular choice. Personally, I can't see navigating this track but once in a day. But then again, I'm middle-aged and have one weak foot. Young Billy goats are likely perfectly in their element and can fully take advantage of their $20 greens fee. For you, said can be a bargain with multiple play.

I myself did not see the basket from the tee most of the time on my first outing. I was playing the white (or blue) tee. The blue band on the short basket does indeed blend in with the landscape (surprising as that may sound). Of course, I know where they are now, but the newcomer may have a similar issue on the first outing. If you see the yellow/gold basket (which you probably will), you might be able to look around and find the blue basket ahead of it somewhere.

If you come in the late fall, you're going to have a whole lot of leaves to contend with, and you're going to spend a lot of time looking for your disc unless it's some very obvious color that contrasts well with the brown, orange, yellow, and red leaves. Is there such a disc? No, I don't believe there is such a color that routinely defeats fall leaves...unfortunately.

Slipping, sliding, and falling definitely are possible at nos. 1 (descending fairway), 13 (same), and 16 (between the gold and blue tees). Straining (possibly sliding backwards) will be the issue for nos. 10 (green up to 11), 15 (green up to dirt road headed towards 16), and 18 (green up to the course exit). NB: Getting out of the massive valley of no. 18 is no joke.

There is no way there will be stairs in all of these places (I realize that$$), but hopefully in the slickest and/or steepest places, additional partial staircases can be cut in over the very, very long run. Perhaps where sliding and falling happens the most.

This steepness means that you should give yourself sufficient time to get around the course (come early!). It took me 4 hours the first time I played Forest Valley. I was probably a little faster the second and third times around, since I then knew where I was going.

All that time was spent not only because of all the elevation but also because of backtracking to find the right tee (first outing) and spending a lot of time looking for discs lost under the leaves (all outings). The first (elevation) and third (lost disc) issues here are to be expected, and the second thing (where's the tee?) has been resolved with signage.

Other Thoughts:

This is indeed an awesome course. One to be sought and played if you are visiting, passing through, or live in the DMV. A regular fall pro-am tournament has set in here. I imagine the gold tees to the gold baskets (I will never play this format) could be approaching the DGPT realm. Seriously, especially if the aforementioned staircases are added. Maybe it is not as challenging as Lake Marshall, but I would be surprised if it does not kick most all amateur butts.

You want to play the small, adjacent family course as warm-up or cool-down. Like Scattersville at Clark's Run, it's a nice morale booster after the main course has shredded you to pieces.

Forest Valley is on a beautiful tract of land in a surprisingly peaceful setting.

I imagine it will never be crowded outside of tournaments, due to the fact that it is a pay-to-play course and also so challenging to navigate. For those of us who like to play in peace and quiet without people "pushing us around", running over us, and/or throwing discs over our heads, I'm all for it!

Hooray Forest Valley!!
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26 0
whitefedora
Silver level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 15.6 years 906 played 36 reviews
4.50 star(s)

Nah-Biscoe Overdoughsed on Awesome

Reviewed: Played on:Oct 15, 2022 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Chips Ahoy! This place has a ton of great holes over and over again. Biscoe keeps designing these tracks and is just getting better and better with great parcels of land. It's amazing stuff, and I'm so thankful for his efforts
-Nice new baskets in good repair, easily visible from the tee with two permanent locations and differing colors to know which is which
-Great use of elevation and fall lines! Valley shots, sweeping double fall lines, awesome downhill rewards, uphills shots are technical and utilize other features rather than just throw upwards until you get there.
-This place is on the site of a ball golf course, but once you start playing the course, you would never know you were anywhere near the ball golf course. It's wooded in all the best ways. Even though the course is quite new, I felt the lines were all quite fair.
-Teepads were level, grippy, and plenty large
-Warm up area near the parking lot had all the things including a few small nets to stretch the joints and throw into.
-It's challenging golf, but it's super fun golf too and that can be a tricky balance, but this place delivers.

Cons:

-When I played, the course was only just allowing people to go through and there were no signs up yet. The Udisc map was incredibly helpful, but in general the layout wasn't too confusing. Just a couple times that we went to the wrong hole. Though that rewarded us with being able to play hole 18 twice, lol
-It's pay to play (which I don't care about, in fact, I generally prefer it "get off my lawn, etc.")
-Some people might like to see a couple more open grassy like holes especially because it's so close to a very well manicured golf course, but I have no issues playing entirely in the woods.

Other Thoughts:

My Oreo thoughts on this are that it's a very new track and it's amazing how much was already done and it will certainly get better through time. How did I like dem biscuits? Well I was pretty giddy (and I don't think it was a sugar high) with how amazing this place is and can't wait to get back, especially since it's an easy stop before going to Lake Marshall (another of Biscoe's fantastic accomplishments). Could it use a minute to be polished up? Sure. Is it ready to play and worth the $10? Definitely. Just make sure to use a map and give yourself some time to play. It's a hike, but for anybody that craves the high of elevation change on a course, it's just par for the course and this course is that Ritz Crack you crave for time and time again.
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