Challenging technical layout that will test your creativity
A lot of effort went into the tee signs
Some of the more unique holes in the area
Athletic field nearby for warmups

Course hasn't gotten much love over the years, overgrown, signs missing, tee markers hard to find
Single chain ring baskets
Natural and sometimes not so friendly tee pads

Despite being 20 minutes away, I had not played this course in 6 years. When it went in it was a fun little course with some funky shaped holes that really made you think about how you wanted to shape your lines and if you wanted to run a risk on the birdie or play for a safe par. Course was in nice shape, some neat bridges had been built, tee signs were unique, soccer fields at the start with the small goals perfect for practice and a nice workout for your game.

Now the course is in pretty rough shape, really grown up, a lot of tee signs are missing, tee markers are tough to find, some of the baskets have seen better days, hole 17 is pretty much unplayable (I'm sure others would consider more holes to be unplayable also) and the old soccer fields are unkept as well as the field one throws over for hole 1.

I've seen some postings in the local club group that some guys have been working on the course to try and clean it up, their work is evident on many of the middle holes in the woods and I'm happy for their efforts. This course has the potential to be a great little technical challenge, even with the base line baskets and poor tee pads, heck you really don't need a walk/run up on most holes, just a standstill or stride throw. It's a course that could really teach you how to create and control short line and make you a better player.

In the end I guess it's condition is to blame on locals like me, knowing it's there and what it could be but never playing there or giving it any love and I might just have to start doing that. I'd love to see it fully up and in great shape, would like to see it getting play too but that may be wishful thinking.

The course plays through a heavily wooded hollow with a stream behind Hanover New Presbyterian Church. There are a variety of short and long holes with some very narrow fairways and heavy rough if you go off the fairway. Every hole except for #1 has both long and short tees. The signage is generally good and navigation is easy, except a long walk between 9 and 10 that crosses the basket from 18 and the tee for 17 to get to the tee for 10. The tees are natural, but typically dry and adequate.
It is very possible to get a 2 or 3 on most holes, or even an ace, but that can quickly escalate to a 5 or 6 if you ricochet off into the woods. I think of it as a good test of your driving ability that can be punishing if you are not on the fairway.

Some holes of note include:
#3 - straight consistent downhill which is easy to overthrow into the woods behind it
#6 - short throw down and up over a stream to a basket on a steep uphill slope
#9 - long dogleg left that ends with the hole placed to the right with the stream behind it
#12 - long straight fairway that bends right through a clearing at the end
#17 and #18 - very narrow fairways where 17 plays down the hill and 18 back up to complete the round. Both are blind shots and ridiculous in the summer.

There is also an open field that you cross to get to the course. It is used for athletics at times, but is often open and available for warming up and practicing with your discs. There is no practice basket.

I recommend only playing the course between September and April due to several summertime drawbacks:
1. Typical Richmond heat and humidity
2. Virtual certainty of wood ticks
3. Biting flies and bugs
4. Spiders and spider webs throughout the woods, even across the fairways
5. Dense underbrush that makes it easy to lose a disc (3 days ago, I spent 35 minutes searching for a disc that landed on the fairway right where I thought it was)
6. Excessive thorny underbrush that even impinges on the fairway.

I don't think it is worth the trouble to play the course during the summer unless you know the layout and what you are in for.

I consider this my local course and play it about once per week. I think it should be renamed Spider Hollow because in July-August the headline is definitely the amount of spider webs in the woods.

It is a fun and quick round that I consistently enjoy and would recommend others to play it during the winter months. All of the problems I mentioned only apply during the summer. My rating of 2.5 would really break down into a 1.5 in the depths of the summer and a 3 in the winter.

Well defined Tees and baskets, and relatively easy to follow, slight gap between holes 9 and 10 but other than that the holes go right after one another. Tight fairways make for a challenging course. Variety of dog leg lefts and right to keep the course interesting

Extremely wooded makes it easy to lose discs, as well as unmaintained rough areas and down trees, but can be a plus for difficulty.

A great course to play and compares to surrounding courses in my opinion, if you arent nearby and are closer to gillies or bryan park it does make more sense to play there more often but whenever your looking for a course to change things up a bit this course should be your first choice for a nearby alternative. Or if your in the area its a great daily course to play and practice and when you get to a more open course it will be a breeze

Course is well laid out and has a veriety of holes. Blind shots, dog legs elevations. All wooded except for 1. Signs are well done and oranve arrows mark both the rout to the basket and the basket direction on blind holes.

a bit overgrown. While the course layout is good it needs some attention. Down trees, rootballs, scrub bushes in the fairways and teepads can be a hazard due to roots.

tI imagine in the fall and winnter when the weedgrass dies off it will play better but I like the technical side of some of the holes.

This course definitely helps when it comes to navigation. On each tee, they have a sign that tells you the par of the hole and how the hole is setup. A lot of the holes are kind of technical with all the trees which makes it a fun challenge. The course has some fun dog legs to the right and left. Hole #6 is a very fun hole because it slopes downhill from the tee pad, over a little creek, then back up a hill where the basket is at eye level. Each hole has two tee pads, a beginner and an advanced. Most holes are between 200 to 400 feet. It has orange arrows on the trees to navigate you to the next hole.

All of the tee pads are just on the ground which makes it sometimes difficult to tee off. There is a lot of places to lose your disc. The only other problem i have is that you will find yourself with a couple ticks on you by the end of the course.

Other than the course being pretty heavily wooded, it's very fun for either a beginner or a pro. The best time to go to this course is early in the morning. The good thing is you can go at night to play glow frolf.

Navigation aids: painted basket spoke (white, red) will point you towards the next tee (short, long). Several bridges to aid in crossing small creek. Even some tree roots are spray-painted to help direct your path!

The two-natural-tee-locations-per-hole are often tree-root filled. The rougher, less-established back nine, while quite playable, had some downed trees crossing the fairways and/or near the baskets - adding to the challenge, I suppose.

Enjoy open hole-1 while you can, because the remainder of the course plays in a woods, composed of a mixture of mid-sized hardwoods, evergreens, and plenty of holly. A small creek runs through the midst of the front nine, and elevation changes, found on about half the holes, are subtle.

Hole lengths are quite short, averaging ~200'/235' feet from the shorts/longs, so this course is well suited towards working with midranges. The throwing paths are not exceedingly tight, and a fairly even distribution of left or right turns (some sharp, some subtle) or straight off the tee is required.

Tee signs are sometimes at the long tee, sometimes at the short tee, and a few times in-between! For the most part, the long tee was simply straight back from the short tee. Navigation wasn't too bad, but be aware of: after basket-8, after crossing bridge, tee-9 to left / basket-9 to right. After basket-9, bit of a walk to tee-10, walking just inside woods, passing basket-18.

A decent course to work on your short game, and to introduce newer players to tree-avoidance/shot-shaping.

Multiple sets of tees which allows the course to be entertaining for beginners and stronger players.

Well manicured brush every time I have played.

They have painted the tree roots near the basket so people don't trip.

This course is a really scenic walk through the woods. Beautiful wooded terrain!

Great tee signs which are both informative and enlightening as they contain Bible verses. That was a nice touch considering it is on church grounds.

Directions to the next tees taped onto the baskets which helps for the overall ease of navigation.

Other than the 1st hole, all of the rest are in the woods. There is an overall lack of variety.

Some of the longer tees require extreme curve on shots or very short layup shots off the tees.

Little variety in hole length.

Not a fan of the Lightning DB-5 baskets...I feel like they reject more shots than others.

Huge thanks to the church for allowing such a nice course here to be open to the public!

Current course conditions are not the best right now (edit: at the time of original review), as the hurricane and earthquake have dropped trees throughout the course. The back nine has multiple holes where the trees are down within 5 paces of the basket, and directly in front of them. Otherwise this is a nice short, narrow course that really emphasizes disc placement.

Nice course in the woods... open hole on 1st and the rest are on in the woods... kinda difficult to find the order of some later holes but that is only because some trees have fallen in the way because of a recent earthquake/hurricane, so I dont hold that against them and in fact some trees actually make it more fun... Definitely a fun course

The trees that have fallen make the later holes a little hard to find but not impossible

>This course is a tale of 2 courses, rolled into 1. The front 9 is very short and could be considered too easy, but it is absolutely beautiful. A real treat to play. The back 9, not so pretty, and gets much tougher. Add it up together, and aside from it being ALL woods but number 1, a lot of variety.

>Nice signs. Nice to know someone prayed where you are playing disc golf. A great atmosphere.

>ALL woods, but #1. If you like tight courses, you will like this, frankly, it is too much of the same thing, and sadly, they have some open property, where #1 is, so they could have got us out of it for a little bit, but didn't.

>Natural Tees

I have read Dorey, Gillies, and Bryant to be called the big 3, but really Gillies and Dorey have nothing over on this course, in fact, I would say this one has some better 'trimmings', especially on the front 9, very very nice. Well worth stopping by to play.

Had a good time playing this 9 hole course. Luckily someone was leavig as we came in, and he directed us to the first tee. After that pretty easy to navigate. Flags have been placed down as a walking path between holes. got a liitle mix up around 4 5 and 6, and figured it out and played them out of order. Fun variety

Watch out for ticks!

Only 9 holes.

Jesus.

Has signs, and nice baskets. Nice flowing course layout. Good mix of lefty and righty holes.

Not broken in yet. Tees could use some clearing out and firming up.

Love the generousity of the church for putting the course there for public play when they could have kept it a private secret. Also, the scripture on the signs are perfect. Not over the top, just a gentle reminder that without him, there is no Disc Golf. Cant wait for the back nine!

Relatively close in proximity to Bryan Park, Dorrey Park, Dunncroft Castle Point & Gillies Creek. Nicely made signs to describe the holes.

Everything, from the fact that you can't bring pets, to people who aren't disc golfers giving us a hard time, to only being a short nine hole woods course. Honestly, unless you live right next to it, I'd go to the previously mentioned spots before even thinking of going back to Hanover Church.

Serenity, interesting holes on front 9, varied hole designs

Overall length, all but #1 in woods, so lack of variety. Undergrowth can be a problem on several holes.

The course at New Hanover Presbyterian Church is a shortish woods course that does feature a few exemplary holes, if sub-300 foot well laid out holes in the forest are your thing. Only the first hole is open, the other 17 are fully in the woods. There are couple 300 foot plus (from the long tees) holes on the second nine, but overall this course stays firmly in the pitch and putt range. Most every hole, though, demands consideration on the tee and good control in your throws. Many holes, especially on the front nine, involve some change in elevation and all but #1 demand some touch, as they vary from gentle fades to hard turns in a couple cases. Interestingly, this course has an unusually high number of right turning holes.

New Hanover features two sets of natural tee pads (short and more typical), and the signs are excellent, showing the hole exactly. The signage is a big benefit as the basket is rarely visible from the tee, even though most of the holes are relatively short. The fairways are fully reasonable though, and as a touch course, New Hanover is occasionally exemplary, particularly on the first nine. Throw with precision and you can get a look at a birdie on most every hole here, but veer off course and you'll be punished. The landscape for the first nine holes is great for disc golf too, with holes playing down to a deeply cut streambed, and then back up to the field that starts the course. The second nine is a bit longer but is also mostly flat and a bit scruffy, and thus is less distinctive.

With its limited length, lack of landscape variety, and natural tee pads, New Hanover is not really worth a big road trip. But for local players (especially those of us whose strengths are touch rather than distance) it's still a worthy outing, and benefits from several perfect little woods holes that any course designer could learn from. New Hanover would be a good course for newbies and young people looking to learn the game; it's really short from the close tees and will teach you control quickly, but is attractive enough, and easy enough to follow, to not scare first timers away. It fits in well in the middle of the pack for Richmond area courses.

Favorite Hole - #6 - Short but challenging downhill shot, across a deep streambed, and then back up and around a bend to the basket.

I was surprised by this course. The variation from hole to hole is nice. The first hole is mostly in the open field, and the rest of the course plays through the woods. The course makes great use of the terrain in the woods, with a both uphill and downhill shots. There aren't too many opportunities for long drives, but as long as you play from the pro tees you won't be disappointed with the difficulty. The markers on the tees are the nicest I've ever seen, and have bible verses on them if that's your thing.

Not long enough, but that should be changing soon. It took some searching to find the first tee but once you're there the course is well marked and easy to follow. My only real complaint is the smaller baskets, but I'm sure that I'll get used to them.

Today I played both of the 9-hole courses in Richmond (this course and Dunncroft Castle Point). After starting the day at DCP I was relieved to play here. This was a much more enjoyable place to play. Can't wait for them to add the back 9.

The course has very easy to read signs and is showing signs of great promise. The signs are great to follow and of great quality. They make following the course very easy. The only sign problem was on 5 where the A tee is on the wrong side.

Needs a bridge on 6. If you play after a rain like I did be very careful because it is slick in places. There were several down tree limbs on the course that had to be moved to play.

I think what this church is doing is wonderful. As the course continues to develop this could be a very nice course that would compete with any in Richmond.

Wonderful short course (9 Holes only). Easy to follow, very First Time Friendly! From each basket just keep your head up and look around and you'll easily find the post for the next hole. Each hole has a post with a detailed map of Tee to Basket to include distances and Pars. Good mix of easy to challenging. The tees are marked A & B with B being easier. The A tees are either more difficult due to distance or placement, sometimes both! If new to the game B's are great, if you have any experience you HAVE to play from the A tees to face some challenge.

Very short. Only Hole 1 could be described as a Grip it and Rip it, but if you have a strong arm you'll Ace it or throw right over it! After that its all woods. No Tee Pads. The Tees are marked but many of the Tee Markers have been run over by lawn mowers and some have been damaged (not all). No rest rooms or amenities, although if hard pressed you may be able to gain access to the church. Not too challenging if you've played many courses or are a Pro.

The Course is behind the church, so park as far back as you can and walk to the middle of their playing field. In the middle is the first post and from there you'll see the basket for Hole 1.

Each Hole map (Post) has a very nice engraved map with verses from the Bible for each Hole. This is interesting and fun to read as you play. If you are offended by Christian teachings don't read and just play, but if you enjoy Christian teaching take the time, they are a great touch. Each verse tries to tie into the Hole number. For example; Hole Nine lists the 9 fruits of the Spirit, Hole One starts with..."In the Beginning...." Its fun looking for the theme as you read and play.

Favorite Holes: Hole 6: A unique throw over two small creeks to an uphill basket sitting on an incline.

I would rate this a 3.5 if it had 18 holes, with 9 its still a solid 3. A simple fun course, have fun and enjoy. I hope more people learn of it and come on out.

Note: Also while from most baskets, its real easy to spot the next Post, be aware that from the 8th Basket to the 9th its a bit of a walk. After crossing the bridge to the right is the 9th basket and to the left is the post and tees. Walk a bit to the left and you'll find the 9th tees.

UPDATE 02-28-2011: This course now has a full 18 holes! The back nine has baskets in place and some have tees in ground, but it is a work in progress. The back 9 do not have maps near tee pads like front nine, although I am sure they are on the way. Still the course lay out for the back nine is more challenging then the short ease of the front nine. Once all in place in a full capacity I will go back and make changes to my original review. Just thought a reader may want to know that a full 18 can be played as it stands. Fun course and once you find your way to the 10th hole tee, its all pretty easy to follow the entire way to hole 18. Once finished, this will be a sweet full course for all to discover!

It's in the woods, it has dual tees and very nice tee signs. nice mix of shot types and uses the mild elevation changes well. tape on baskets to denote direction of next tee.

Lightning baskets a bit narrower than other basket types, and only have a single chain ring.Lots of leaves this time a year makes it hard to see the tee markers and paths from hole to hole. Chance of loosing a disc in the leave even more so if your like me and only play with orange discs. No clear shot from 7A tees, either luck out throwing threw a clump of trees or up and over for a short shot.

This course is a work in progress(should be becoming a 18), so i can only imagine it will get better. I would like to see some grooming of the fairways take place. I'm a fan of kinda lining the edges with downed trees but if nothing else maybe the tee areas and paths from hole to hole to help them stand out in the leaves. And in time a third longer set of tees. All said and done this course has the basics and will get better over time.

very tight Course. Pinpoint is the name of the game. Love Hole 6 go over two creeks. Back Nine are in Now. When you get to the Tenth hole its easy to go around course from there.

Short in distance. 7th hole A tees are behind trees.

I like it alot. Great Short course. Back nine is fun like the Front 9.