-Easy to find
-Easy to navigate around the course with well marked signs
-Not many chances to lose a disc
-Well maintained(except needs weed wacked)
-Good use of trees to make holes more technical

-Many holes are too short
-In some places the holes are too close together, so if it were busy you would have to watch out for discs
-Needs someone to weed wack the tee boxes
-

This is a fun course, especially if you are new to disc golf. I went there with only one disc(roadrunner 171) while on vacation and played 5 over. The course is deceivingly short, but the use of the trees make it pretty technical. Holes 14 and 15 are tight and longer than the rest of the course. You can play the majority of this course with a mid-range. If you are a good disc golfer, play the blue tees. Most of the blue tees are marked and easy to find. The signs for each hole are very accurate. All in all, good quality course. I was not let down.

Detailed tee signs, course care, variety

Tee boxes need grooming and absence of tee boxes for blue tees, easy to lose discs.

Goyne Park is mostly an open course but the hole placement and random sprouts of trees keep the game interesting. Most of the holes are fairly short and provide ace opportunities, but there are a few for big arms. They also vary from right to left doglegs so there's no favor for right or left handed players. The tee signs include distances from both tees and a map that shows, in addition to the hole, how to get to the next tee. If that isn't enough, there are other signs posted around to help you find the next tee. Goyne park isn't very large, so the course has to wind around itself. Fortunately, I've only ever been when there were only one or two other groups, but on a crowded day the course could be difficult to share as many of the holes play through or very close to other fairways and baskets.

It seems as though the people taking care of the course need a weed whacker because the course itself is very well maintained but the tee boxes are overgrown and appear snaky (Blue tees don't even have a tee box, and instead can be right up against the woods). The fairways are mowed lower than the surrounding grass to help guide you to the corresponding hole.

The biggest issue with this course is that if you aren't accurate it can be easy to lose a disc. The brush around the course is extremely dense and full of thorns. It can also get muddy around the lower holes with a lot of rain.

Overall, Goyne Park is a small but pretty course with a lot of variety. I'll definitely be playing out there again.

Lots of variety, right turns, left turns, low precision shots, grip and rips.

Actually very easy to navigate. Signs point to the next tee box.

You do have to be careful on some of the holes, there are very think vines and bushes on some of the holes.

Also, I could tell that water/mud could be a problem, so definitely give the rain a chance to dry.

Overall had a great time playing this course. Played the course from the white tees and there are definitely some challenging pars and some good chances for birdies.

I have a feeling some updates have been made to this course, because I thought it was really nice except for a few broken wood boxes at the tees which really wasn't a big deal.

Location. Closer than the Richmond courses (to me). Usually isolated from other people.

Swampy in the cooler months when rain doesn't dry as fast.

Fun course. Blues make it quite a bit more challenging. Decent variety of shot.

It has about 5 good open shots.

Beware of Snakes and Dont take your nice discs.

Even though I'm a beginner I never had to worry before about losing discs, let alone 2 in one day.The first casualty came at hole 2 that is lined with a pond to the right. The second came on hole 11 that has thick forest on the right. My disc didnt go far, but the overwhelming briars and the spotting of two copperhead snakes left me defeated after 20 minutes of searching.
The course overlaps itself quite a bit and isnt well maintained. Most of the tees are either overgrown or the markers have been devoured by a riding lawn mower.

Two tee locations (blue longer than yellow, signs at blue). Online map and (critical) next tee signs at course make it easy for a first-time visitor to navigate. Practice basket.

Nearly all tee "pits"/locations in complete disrepair, small, ground-level markers smashed. Many places where slightly-errant throws could come near other tee locations.

For this review, I played the course from the shorter (yellow) tees.

Take a rectangular-shaped meadow, with a slight right-to-left slope, add a smattering of clusters and lines of trees, and you have the topography of this course. It plays in a counter-clockwise direction, occasionally doubling back on itself, or zig-zagging towards the center.

The first five holes are 200' +/- right turning shots, followed by two left turning shots of similar length, all with some trees involved. You then have two ~350' open shots. The back nine mostly consists of left-turning shots, with slightly more length and more challenging tree locations.

Favourite holes(s): #13, a long, slightly left-turning hole with a treeline about halfway across then to a right-side basket, followed by #14, a 300' drive down a narrowing fairway with the basket hard left.

Goyne exceeded my expectations and was played during a daylong tour of all the Richmond courses. The course has decent shot variety, makes good use of the available land, and from what I've heard from locals, is slowly and steadily improving -- which is great. If it makes full use of it's potential, I think it could eventually be a 3.0-rated course. But for now, the problems outweigh the benefits of playing here.

The biggest cons are the signage and markings for the tees. Even with the map, my brother and I failed to find all of the tees. Some of them don't have any markings at all (at least, as of this review), and some of the ones that have flags in the ground don't have any other information.

Quick advice related to the map: print the map in color -- if you print it in black and white, you can't read or see anything on it -- not even the hole numbers -- so it becomes virtually useless. If we'd had a color map, it would have helped, but a course should be navigable without a color map.

Some of the tees are boxed in and were just uneven, rutted dirt. If these boxes become concrete, it will be better, but not great, since they will be elevated -- boxes should ideally be level with the ground. Simply placing flags is preferable to boxing in a small square of ground and creating trip hazards for a teepad.

Most holes are fairly open, with a lack of variety in teeshots. Some of the long tees are much harder, but do so at the expense of a line. I'm a pro-level player, and have been playing for 11 years and have most shots in my bag, but there were blue teepads out there where I saw no reasonable way to reach the basket. The blues just make some holes a huck and pray and take the three... which is silly. Skill should always up your chances, and there are places here where the blues add difficulty and mitigate skill, which is just frustrating and poor course design.

The course wasn't horribly overgrown, but it could definitely use some work. Tall weeds throughout the course fairways made it uncomfortable and slowed down walking. This also made roller shots and skips pretty much impossible, which is a shame because the ground otherwise was relatively free of debris and would make a great place for roller shots across many of the open fairways.

Overall, the place had a desolate, deserted feel to it. We saw one other car with a pair of disc golfers wrapping up as we were starting our round midday on Saturday. After that, we saw no other people. Any growing course should have at least a few players on a beautiful Saturday. The lack of player interest suggests to me that this is definitely a B-list course by local standards. Lots of people at some of the other parks, but virtually no one at this one.

I guess the upside to the emptiness is that there are no collisions that way. There were several places on the course where you would be teeing off into a fairway you'd just walked up, or where baskets were too close to tees or multiple holes shared fairways... this would be a danger if the course were ever busy.

My rating of 2.0 may seem overly harsh, but I don't think so. This course is "2.0 - Reasonable" and that defines it perfectly. It is a reasonable place to play if you are nearby, but on one will go out of their way to play here until some of the issues are addressed. Good signage and tees, and frequent mowing would make this course a 3.0. And I think that's where it would peak. There are too many problems with this many holes on this little land for it to achieve much more than that. I'm not knocking the course designeres -- they're doing a great job of building a fun practice course out of what they have, but it's not there yet.

The course has a couple of cool holes -- #14, as mentioned by another reviewer, is a great shot -- fantastic tight hyzer alley blind up a hill to a fast green. Definitely one of the coolest shots on the course. Hole #2 across the water has some potential as well, but the long tee isn't marked, so it's hard to know what the actual shot over the pond is supposed to be.

This is worth checking out if you are in the area -- it's fun. But print a color map, bring plenty of bug spray (they are out in force), and don't come in with high expectations. Bring your teebird and you're putter and you'll be prepared for every hole this course has to offer.

good variety between the font and back nine. Its a nice small course for the afternoon.

Still needs work for holes 15-18. A lot of drainage problems. Makes it extremely hard to navigate, esp on 15 and 16.

This course could be so nice if the water problem was fixed.

In Jun of 2008 I slammed this course for its obvious lack of anything good except the baskets. Well there has been a lot work since then. They have added the nicest signs for each tee I have ever seen. But they are missing on 2,4, and 5. The signs are very accurate and easy to read. They are on the pro tees so if you are playing the rec tees you will have to walk a little out of the way. The signs pointing to the next tee are very good and accurate. With just a little common sense used on a couple you will no problem getting around with the signs. There has been some work to improve the tees but it is not finished. The course offers a nice variety of throws. Very technical ones such as 2, and 6 and some real good grip and rip shots such as 13, 16 and especially 18. This course has seen a lot of work and if it continues this could be a very special place. At the entrance to the course and next to Blue 10 is a great map of the entire course

The course will still eat discs if you are not careful because several of the fairways are lined on one or both sides with very nasty briars. They will motivate you to learn control and accuracy. Some of the tee areas are still in bad shape. The course is still hard to find and the park employees did not even know where it was. If you play after a rain storm the drainage on 11 through 17 is bad but correctable. The course rule sign that has been put up at the entrance says you are not suppose to play during school hours. To find the course enter Ecoff Elementary School in your GPS or look for it on a good Richmond area map. Then go to the end of the parking lot on the right of the school and you are there.

"I am going to try this course again because I think it and the city deserve another chance. It has great potential for a good neighborhood course". I left the prior statement because my thoughts have not changed.

Lots of variation from hole to hole, with many holes unlike any others that I am aware of in the Richmond area (at Gillies, Dorey, or Bryan). Lots of challenging holes that are too short for big drives but still difficult to make par on. Pro and amateur tees on every hole is a plus as well. The baskets all look nice and new, and having a practice basket is nice as well. The course is secluded so, aside from other discers, there's no park patrons to watch out for.

Goyne is somewhat difficult to navigate the first time around, but after playing through once its easy. You'll have to be careful on a lot of your drives or you will spend a good deal of time looking for your disc in the woods, which are not easy to get around in (lots of bugs and thorns). Watch out for all of the holes in the ground, too.

Goyne seems to be in the process of being renovated - the tees on the front 9 are boxed in and clearly marked, but some of the ones on the back 9 are difficult to locate because the markers are old and destroyed. Once the tees are all boxed in (and hopefully filled with cement) this should be a great course.

Off the road setting, not busy. Challenging holes, baskets hidden in tress make for a fun setting. No use other than disc golf!

Ground very unbalanced. Rough terrain. Muddy in many places (Back nine can seem unplayable after a hard rain) and hidden holes make for treacherous walking. Blue (long tees) dificult to find at times.

This course is much improved since I first reviewed it years ago. It has become a fun and challenging course. I wrote previously that it was hard to find tees and had no map, well now both have been fixed! The map is right at the parking lot and the Yellow (beginner) Tees all have tee boxes and are easy to find.

NOTE: The bugs are still RELENTLESS at this park and the terrain rough, but now knowing the tees of the course is a huge benefit. I believe the map can be found on the Nationwide PDGA course directory.

NOTE 2!!!!: I have again went back and played Goyne and I am happy to report that they have made a lot of improvements. They have now placed a practice tee and a beautiful gravel paved walkway leading right to the first hole! Grass has been placed where there was once brush and the Tee posts are brand new, well not all of them, but when I last played there Tees 1-9 were brand new. It looks like a lot of work is being placed into Goyne and it plays much better thanks to that effort. If the work continues, Goyne will be a great course for the Richmond TriCity Area players to enjoy! I can't wait to see and report on any future improvements to this up and coming course.

NOTE 3: 10/16/08: Looks like they are boxing off the tees at Goyne. If they are going to put in concrete tees, it will be yet another step to increase the appeal of this park. A lot has been done since my first review and its all for the better!

Note #4 (2-17-09): This course just keeps getting better. A lot has been done about the landscaping and there are now signs pinting players in the direction of the next Tee. A fantastic addition. Also at the blue Tees, there are great signs with the distance and detailed maps showing tee to basket layouts. This park only keeps improving and is quickly becoming one of the best in the area!

-Varied Shots
-Top of the line baskets

-Tight course
-You might have to look before you throw

This a nice course that will get some more improvements and care. With those improvements and good maintenance, this will be a good local course. It is a course worth playing, and a great course for developing disc golfers.

Variety of hole layouts and thus shots needed. Signage and concrete teepads.

Many fairways overlap or virtually face each other. A few holes that are muddy more often than not.

Goyne Park is a relatively small but nicely varied course set in an outer suburb of Richmond, Virginia. While most of the holes play largely in the open, many have thick, unforgiving woods just outside of the ample but not huge fairways. A bunch of holes also play to baskets that are well situated just inside a copse of trees, or on the side of an incline, so while the course is relatively short and mostly open, it still plays much more like a precision course rather than a "grip and rip" for big arms only.

On the downside, Goyne Park is set out on less land than most 18-hole disc golf courses. While the space would be perfect for maybe 12 longer, more varied holes, putting 18 holes in this park is a little bit of a squeeze. Many fairways play very close to or really effectively overlap each other. So you may have to stand back and wait for the group on hole #18 to finish before you can start playing #17, for instance, because otherwise you're kind of throwing right at each other. In addition, all but maybe one hole on the course are pretty standard par 3 in terms of length, though blue tees on most every hole can be used to stretch the course out a bit.

The positive trade-off for this squeezed together layout is improved variety. In addition to the well considered basket placements mentioned above, Goyne Park does demand a variety of tee shots; left hook, right fades, big chucks, a couple of interesting touch shots out of trees or around thick trees and thorns, and one true and challenging water hole (if you're playing from the blue tees). Variety is the spice of a good course, in my book.

Goyne Park does feature nice concrete pads for the yellow tees. The course also has nice signs at each hole and thus shouldn't be too hard to follow for first-timers. And while the course has no big hills, you'll still need your full bag and an array of skills to stay out of trouble and throw a good round at Goyne Park.

Favorite Hole - #14 - Shot has to hook left but terrain slides off to thick woods on the right, then basket is up a steep hill.