Unique vibe of interesting suburban course
12 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: In my opinion, the good woods (or partially woods) holes are nos. 1, 6, 8 (surprisingly challenging), 9 (you have a choice of two tight gaps to drive through over the roadway), 13 (surprisingly challenging), and 14.
Good open holes (or mostly open) holes include 4, 5, 7, 12, 16, 17.
The rest are decent or so-so.
Every hole now has a basket versus an object.
I've only played the course twice, essentially 6 months apart. Neither time was the park crowded, both weekday visits. I also didn't have to let anyone play through either time I played the course.
Cons: Holes 10, 11, and 12 are too close to one another. The mando is meant to separate 11 and 12, but then 11 interferes with 10. As you see, I like 12 as it is. If 10 and 11 had more separation space, I'd certainly put them in the good column versus the decent column for their current design. Maybe if another hole can be carved out elsewhere on the course (not sure there is room), the current 10 or 11 could be eliminated.
The signature hole at 15 is a bit too punishing if your golf disc doesn't make it over the ravine. If it hits an early tree and falls in, you have to find a way down into it without killing yourself. The slope into it is slick from all the previous retrievals. I walked down parallel to the ravine towards the river and found a place where it was not so steep to get into the ravine. To get out, I walked up the ravine and under the bridge. Of course, if there's actually water running down in the ravine, you may have the real potential of your disc floating away. I think its teeing area needs to be wider (remove some trees) for a more forgiving tunnel. Not advocating for elimination of the tunnel, but just a few more feet of air.
If throwing over parking lots or the roadway, things can get dangerous for the cars and possibly non-disc golf people. No. 4 in particular allows bombers to throw straight over the parking lot. Short throwers will have to throw an Annie over the first part of the parking lot to the grass, which is fine if no cars are under that flight. To play no. 9, it might be best to lay up to the edge of the roadway and not throw a drive out of one patch of woods where the tee is to the other patch of woods where the basket is. If you are not going back-door on no. 12, you have roadway to contend with.
I'm not sure all the hardware is still there. I played the concrete pad which I think sometimes is in the long position and sometimes the intermediate position. Probably least confusing to just have the concrete pad and the red toe boxes. I didn't always find the gray pad. The concrete pad was mostly/always the intermediate pad. Sometimes this white tee was actually longer than the gray tee (long).
Other Thoughts: Certainly unique in its flavor and vibe. Nothing like other Richmond courses I have played including Gillies Creek, Goyne, Duncroft. Pharaoh's Tomb seems to attract more families and more novice and recreational players than young intermediate and advanced. That isn't a bad thing. However, I think any skill level would find the course interesting. The bonus hole has been removed; I imagine people were hitting passing cars with their golf discs.
Park out of line of the nos. 4 and 7 tees. On my second and most recent visit, one player was actually parked almost in the park's main road to try to insure his/her car took no bruises. I watched the locals who also parked nearly to the park's main road but in the actual lot on the top side of the lot (i.e. closest to the tees). With the assumption that a golf disc fading late and low into the parking lot would cause the most hurt. In other words, *don't* park anywhere near no. 18's basket.
Addenda: I mention the previous objects because many of the photos here on DGCR are still of the objects.
12 of 12 people found this review helpful.
Date: 6/29/2022
Designer Response by: gottafixit
Interesting that you mention a few things that were from the early years. This course did start as an Object Course but it has been full 18 baskets since I think 2009. The bonus hole was one of those Object holes. I left the toe boards and tape up after the basket conversion but over the years the toe boards went missing and the tape aged and fell off and I never bothered to replace them.
You'll Remember the Tomb Hole
15 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: -A park course with a variety of open fairways, heavy and moderately wooded, upslope and downslope, elevated tee, parking lot, and a combination of short and long holes.
-#15 a short, elevated tee over a ravine to a higher elevated basket placement ranks #1 for holes with 200-225 feet distance. Butting out No. 8 at Dorey Park just a short way up the road.
-A few unusual holes. 2/3rds of the #4 fairway are a parking lot, and #12 has an old fashion ground water hand pump that comes into play.
-One set of tee pads are concrete that look gritty but solid, I played the concrete tees.
-Tee signs have hole number, par, distance, map, and next tee.
-Basket catch well and have painted rungs to next tee.
-Navigation is a meandering counter-clockwise with a few cress-crossings.
-Course is open sunup to sunset.
-Grass was mowed.
-Beginners and Recreational players will have a tested park layout. Intermediate and Advanced will find a few holes challenging, and have their patience tested in the woods and with the park.
Cons: -I highly recommend an early morning tee off to avoid parking on the 4th fairway. #18 also crosses a few parking spots, and a driveway into the lower section of the park. #9 also crosses a road. The course meanders into just about every portion of the park. There are early morning walkers crossing fairways and picnic tables bordering fairways. I don't know how anybody can play the course during the day if there's heavy park usage in the warmer months, and I can only imagine how cluttered the weekend could be. I teed off at 8am on a Friday morning and had to wait a few times. Teeing off #4 a short time later a few cars to the left in parking and had to aim right center to avoid them. I personally would not play here during the day after 10am, people were pouring into the park as I was leaving a little after 9am.
-Some of the wooded holes are not memorable.
-Tee signs are looking ragged, and some have portions not readable.
-There are two wooden toe boards per hole with some being rutted. They seem to be easy to find from hole to hole.
-It was muddy in some places in the wooded holes, it hadn't rained in a few days. I would think after steady rain it could become swampy.
-Disc lost factor seemed to be all on #15. I was able to walk right up to my disc in the woods, even in the rough. Rough is sparse.
Other Thoughts: Playing Pharaoh's Tomb was not on my plans to play the course that morning. I had arrived too early at Fort Lee pass office before it opened and was able to make the short trip to play Pharaoh's for the start of a three-bag course day. The course is fun with the short heavy wood holes with narrow gaps, the more open holes protected by overhanging branches here and there, the variety of distances and #15 is a gem. Looking at the scorecard you would think birdies! I threw great, but no birdies. I think I hit trees on every short hole and found myself in the wrong position on the longer holes having not played them before. I kept my patience thinking those birdies would eventually come but had to have greater patience waiting for foot traffic to clear holes.
The biggest con was the amount of people in the park for an 8am start. My original plans a later date was to have Pharaoh's as a second course arriving around 930-10. I must wonder if any holes would have had to been skipped or modify to avoid other park goers. Glad it all worked out the way it did.
With a fun layout and challenging for myself including patience, variety of distances, the water pump factor on 12 and for myself the deflection, and #15 my overall rating is anchored on a 4.0. The time to play was 1 hour including the few times I waited for others and cars.
Notable Holes:
No.1 Par 3 at 290 feet is a straight down the middle fairway for about 275 feet then off to the right is the basket with guardian trees. The fairway is protected by heavy trees at about 30 feet wide. At 100-feet is a crooked tree right in the middle of the fairway. A small stream just 5 feet wide crosses just in front of the tee pad and stays on the right side of the fairway and was dry when I played it. The hole is scenic.
No. 4 Par 3 at 400 feet is an open hole across a parking lot for at least 2/3rds and can get a nice skip across. The parking lot downs slopes, rises back up into the grass portion of the fairway then about 75 feet out down slopes to the basket sitting under a pine tree with canopy.
No. 9 Par 3 at 255 feet is a very nasty tightly gapped hole right in front of the tee box at about 20 feet. No going thru the middle, To the left is a few gaps to pick no wider than 10 feet trying to reach the road about 90 feet out. The right gap off the tee seems impossible at 40 feet out with a 6-foot gap then hooks to the left, glad I'm not a righty for this hole. Several skinny trees protect both gaps. Both gaps meet about 130 feet out at the road. The hole is directly across the street and hooks to the basket left at about 70 feet from road. With the best option for myself the left gap with a sharp right skipping down the road, I threw my trusty Star Leopard.
No 12. Par 3 at 376 feet is a slightly downslope dogleg right at about 170-feet into the open. All along the right are trees and brush blocking the view to the basket. The basket has guardian trees in its front and to your right. To reach the basket you need a sweeping left to right tee throw getting as far to the left of basket as you can for a clear approach even if you're in C1 or C2. I threw a solid straight throw that decided to leave out the fade and was still a long way out from the basket. From the fairway you'll notice trees and bushes to the left of the basket and overhanging branches in front of basket, and the road within C1, a tough get. Then I noticed a pavilion to the left and left center of my path an old fashion ground water pump just outside C2 and slightly in my path. My approach went dead straight again towards the brush, I'm thinking bogey, then watch my disc deflect off the spigot and towards the basket. A nice assist from the pump.
Signature/Trouble Hole: For the first time the same hole on an 18-hole course.
No. 15 Par 3 at 205 feet is from an elevated tee to a basket slightly more elevated and straight ahead on a hill that looks like an older Egyptian tomb, not the pyramid type. Pharaoh's Tomb! The hill is rounded in the front and narrow, wider in the back. The basket sits on the top with guardian trees, a small pavilion sits behind and to the left of basket. The walking path from tee to basket climbs in front of the hill at an angle, as you would see a ramp for a tomb. All around the basket is a roller with a green area smaller than C1. To the right and back of basket is a 200-foot death putt into a river, you're not seeing this from the tee. From the tee a narrow gap of about 20 feet all the way down with heavy trees and overhanging branches until you reach the ravine that may or may not have water flowing into the river. Just in front of the tee is a wooden fence that has a gap for the tee box and your throw, it should help you get lined up. My drive hit some overhanging branches and landed on the walking path in front of the tomb. Went for the straight up birdie putt not knowing about the death putt, and hit a tree possibly saving my disc. Very scenic hole, and intimidating.
15 of 15 people found this review helpful.
Good course in a small park, "Let's be careful out there"!
16 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: Concrete tee pads for one of the three sets of tees.
Good tee signs that show you where you are headed.
Really good variety of holes, mostly open, but several wooded, flat, elevation changes, primarily short, but a couple of 400 footers.
The Mach 2 baskets were fine.
Restrooms and plenty of other activities in this busy park.
Cons: There are some safety issues with this course that break into three categories:
Course - #5 and #7 baskets have overlapping Circle 2s. #6 and #8 tees are within Circle 2s. #2 basket is practically in #3 fairway.
Vehicle - #4 (Int) fairway crosses over a busy parking lot, #18 (Int) fairway crosses over another parking lot and the park drive leading to it.
Park Users - #2, 3 and 15 play close to picnic shelters. #4,5 and 7 play across on open play field, that is probably busy at most times and next to the restrooms building.
Other Thoughts: I'm glad I noticed in the Course Info that to minimize the interactions with other park users, this course is best played early morning or late afternoon. I showed up early morning, on a Saturday ... and they were having a road race, that finished in the park. Luckily, it didn't slow me down any, including #9, that throws across a park road that the race finished on.
There are some pretty fun holes here, including:
#1 - a small creek runs most of the length of the fairway, with scattered trees, a neat semi-open hole to start on.
#4,5 and 7 - allow you to let it fly across the open field, if it is clear of others.
#10 and 11 - play up and over a hill in the middle of the park, 10 is longer and mostly straight, 11 finishes to the left.
#15 - probably the signature hole, just about 200' across a deep ravine, with a steep embankment back and right of the basket, leading down to Swift Creek (which is more like a river).
#16 - longer and more open, back across a less steep part of the ravine to a guarded basket position.
White Bank Park is a well used and beautiful park, especially on the back nine where you have views of Swift Creek from #15 and 16 tee. The holes cover most of the park and just about every type of hole you could want, except anything longer than 400'. The mix of left and right holes felt about right, and the front nine was definitely more wooded than the back 9.
I've heard about Pharaoh's Tomb (not sure where that name came from) for a few years, it seems to be the place to play, south of Richmond. It is currently rated at 3.26 and I feel that is about right. I'm going on the low side of that, because of the safety and potential limited number of holes available at any given time. I was a little disappointed with the amount of those issues, but the course has been around for 13 years, so everyone must be playing safe, hopefully that will continue.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.
nice
0 Helpful / 7 Not
Pros: It was really nice! Really fun to play! First time back in 3 months.
Cons: There were people camping so we couldn't play home 17.
Other Thoughts: Over all it's a really nice course and will play again soon
0 of 7 people found this review helpful.
Good mix of wooded and open
0 Helpful / 4 Not
Pros: This course is very scenic and plays well. There is a multitude of shots to make to include ravines, up and down hill. Many creaks to play over but none are deep.
Cons: Hole 1 is in a wierd spot it took me awhile to find it since I missed it coming in. A few holes cross each other and cross common areas.
Other Thoughts: This is a good scenic course and I truly enjoyed playing. I will play again before i leave the area.
0 of 4 people found this review helpful.
Sweet confusion
6 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: Some really nice holes
Well maintained park
Restrooms and water
Scenic river view
Teepads and baskets in good shape
Good signage
Cons: Mixed use area and holes can become blocked with other park goers
Navigation for a first or second time player can be questionable at best
Some baskets and tees are a little jumbled together
Kind of in a out of they way location
Other Thoughts: Game has been in a funk lately so I decided to try a change of scenery and being that this course 40min away and I've never played here seemed like a good enough reason to check it out.
Unfortunately the park is in a goofy location, I'm not knocking it but it's in the hairpin bend of a river and there's one way in and one way out, so it's stop in on the way through kind of spot. That being said, I think it's a worthwhile destination.
The course plays in and out of the woods and open areas of the park. You'll pass hole #1 and the kiosk on the way in to the parking area. Holes are pretty straightforward, not bad but no real risk/reward type lines short of going for the ace on 15. The holes aren't bad by any means, they do require a lot of shot shaping, seems to be a few more left to right than right to left holes. Nothing here requires or really benefits from a cannon arm though outside the obvious of being able to throw a putter where others go driver.
Navigation can be confusing and frustrating for first time players. There are inevitably some holes that you will miss the first time you play, 3 and 13 seem to be the obvious ones, you'll look down at your scoring app or card or just feel like you didn't play 18 at the end, chances are it'll be one of those 2, they are easy to miss. There's a map at the kiosk by #1, take a picture of it or use the one from this site here, it'll come in handy. The course uses what seems like every square foot that it was allowed to use, the trade off for this jumble is that the holes are, well, good so it's worth it.
Otherwise, it's a pretty nice course, I wish it was a little more convenient for me to get to because I would play it more than some of the closer ones to me, would actually prefer to have it over some of the local ones as it really is a good mix of shots, shapes and technicality. If you're wanting to check it out and have a chance to do so during the week then it may work out better for you as it looks like it could get a little contentious with non discgolfers on the weekends.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.
A Nice Challenge
7 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: Nice mix of holes. Mostly tight and wooded, with just a few open-field smashes. Water is not in play (other than a tiny hazard stream on hole 1).
I have been playing for three years, and this course is at the edge of my abilities. You need to be able to work your shot shape. I recently added the putter turnover shot to my arsenal, and I made good use of it here. FYI, we played from the white concrete pads.
There are at least four par 3s on the course that probably should be par 4s. There might be some "local" lines, but I doubt many locals would reach these either. One hole in particular would require a 375 foot sky-high lefty hyzer, and you would still have to crash the trees and get a little luck. Par is just a number though, so I'm not dinging the course for that. Signage and navigation are good, with only a couple of spots that are a bit confusing.
There is a water point next to each of the picnic pavillions.
Cons: Bring hardcore (deet) bug spray. The biting flies and mosquitoes are aggressive and plentiful. My playing partner brought some non-deet organic bug spray, and it hardly slowed them down. That being said, bugs don't seem to like me, and I went the first 12 holes with no spray and no bug bites, but the biting flies were buzzing around my head constantly. Distracting.
This is truly a mixed use course. Many of the holes weave in and out of picnic areas. We visited on a weekday morning, and it was (awesomely) deserted. We were the only disc golfers. I wouldn't even consider playing this on a Saturday afternoon.
Other Thoughts: I'd play here again. I think it would be a nice option in the winter, which might provide a few more lines and a few less flies.
There seems to be a healthy population of feral cats here. They are unhelpful, though, and refuse to aid you in finding a lost disc.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.
Great course, but can eat you alive
0 Helpful / 2 Not
Pros: This is a really well balanced course with a great mix of open throws and a very pleasant walk through the woods. The course requires every shot in your arsenal with a few mandos thrown in to mess your plan up.
Cons: It's not particularly beginner friendly, but it's not impossible. It's a good place for newer players to see what a real course will bring to the table. It's not forgiving, don't end up in the woods or you'll find yourself begging for daylight.
Other Thoughts: Bring bug spray and don't play if it's recently rained hard.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Fun Course
0 Helpful / 4 Not
Pros: I have been playing for 2 years. For me this coarse provided a good challenge with a variety of wooded and open holes. At first it looked like it would be a short coarse, but found it to have a good mix of long and short holes. Very glad I took the time to find and play it on my visit from the Charlotte area. I would definitely recommend it to people visiting the area.
Cons: First hole is a little rough.
Other Thoughts: Fun coarse. If you haven't play Pharoah's Tomb, put it on your play list.
0 of 4 people found this review helpful.
Fun course
4 Helpful / 0 Not
Pros: I'm assuming a lot of improvements have happened in the last year or so.
Every hole had at least one concrete tee. Multiple other tees for beginners. We went on the first warm day in may, so sometimes we needed to use the other tees to avoid pedestrians.
Great signage on every hole. Never got lost, always knew where to throw.
Excellent use of elevation on several holes.
Clean park with plenty of benches, bathrooms, and things for the family to do.
I love that this course never felt repetitive, every hole made you think. I ended up using just about every disc in my bag.
Holes 1-3 made me nervous that It was going to be a bad course: short holes, long grass, and mud, however those were really the only holes like that.
Looking back at the course I can see that maybe it lacked more long distance holes, but as I was playing it, I didn't feel likes it was missing anything, and I'm the first person that loves a good grip it and rip it hole.
I like cats so seeing a few were fine by me.
Cons: As much as I loved this course, the only major con I have is one that would keep me from coming back again. You constantly were playing through highly populated locations. We there on probably an unusually busy day, there was some sort of big BBQ happening as we were getting to the back 9, so people were just everywhere. Even if the course just had your average weekend park goers, you were throwing 50-100 feet of parking lots, walkways, playground, volleyball, bathrooms, picnic areas, bridges, streets, and other tee pads. Since there are some blind spots, you wouldn't see someone walking around some bends that come right through your fairway.
I few "watch for flying disc" signs or something similar would at least help.
Other Thoughts: I would love to have this course close to where I live, seems like the perfect neighborhood park. This course would be awesome in the colder weather, less foliage and people would make this a an even more fun course.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.
Date: 11/4/2015
Designer Response by: gottafixit
While there may be some times of the day or even seasons that you might have to share the park with others there are other times and seasons where the disc golfers are the only ones there. If you can bare the cold late fall and winter are great times to play the course.
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Hole #15 (Taken 4/2009) 
3 / 150ft. 
2-4 
6/10/2022 
6/28/2022
Review By: DumfriesLizzie 
This review was updated on 9/30/2022
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