By Ian Quindoza

The Richmond area has a handful of wonderful golf courses. There are picturesque courses, such as Kinloch Golf Club in Manakin-Sabot, or Willow Oaks Country Club, situated right on the edge of the James River. There are also historic courses, such as Belmont Golf Course, which hosted the 1949 PGA Championship, won by Virginia golfing legend Sam Snead. Richmond also has a number of very challenging golf courses which feature some very tough holes. Of the many daunting holes I have played in Richmond, three stand out. 

Of these three, there is no particular order to their difficulty, because they all possess unique challenges. The 11th hole at Independence Golf Club in Midlothian is a monster of a par three (depending on where you play it from). From the regular men’s (blue) tees, this hole actually isn’t considered to be very hard, due to its length of only 160 yards. The hole becomes a real beast when you play it from the black tees, the set of tees that garner the longest total yardage and are typically played by only the highest caliber golfers. At 210 yards, it is the second-longest par three at Independence, and trouble around the green comes much more into play than when it is played from a shorter distance. 

The green is guarded by three bunkers on the front left and right corners. It is extremely hard to hit due to the fact that it doesn’t have much depth from back to front, and a golf ball flying from 200 yards away is much harder to stop on a green than a golf ball from 160 yards away. From 200 yards, a golfer needs to use a much lower lofted club to reach the green. Lower lofted clubs hit the ball farther, but also launch much lower, making it hard to control a ball landing on a small green. On all sides of the green are steep drop-offs that can send a ball rolling almost 15 yards off of the edge of the putting surface. Former Christopher Newport University golfer Noah Wheeler says the hardest aspect of the hole is that “It’s long” and has “an elevated, two-tiered green.” J.J. Powell, a sophomore at St. Christopher’s School and one of that school’s best golfers, attributes the hole’s difficulty to the “small green” and the bunkers surrounding it.  

The difficult green complex and its tricky surroundings make for a dual threat. If you miss the green, there are very few places your ball could end up that would leave you a simple chip or pitch shot. Once you have finally managed to keep your ball on the green, you will most likely still face a confusing putt. The green itself doesn’t have any severe slopes; however, it is extremely difficult to read. Even after having played the hole upwards of 500 times, I am still puzzled at times as to why a putt slides to the left or right, even after I was sure I had read the green perfectly. 

Another challenging hole in the Richmond area is the 5th hole at The Country Club of Virginia’s Tuckahoe Creek course. The 5th is a short, but dangerous, par 5 that I’m almost certain collects the most balls hit in the water of any hole in Richmond. When you’re standing on the tee box, a lake defends the entirety of the hole’s left side, from 30 yards in front of the tee box all the way to the front edge of the green. The hole makes a slight bend to the left, which creates a number of different angles at which you can hit your tee shot. At times it seems as if this hole is daring you to take an aggressive line over the water to cut as much yardage off the hole as possible. 

The hole’s one-two punch is that even with all the water left, you can’t just play safe and miss on the right either. Tuckahoe Creek meanders along the entire right side of the hole, just yards from the edge of the fairway. A ball that sails into the thick brush lining the creek is nearly impossible to find. The creek and the lake on the left act as hazards, and if you hit your ball into either of them, you receive a one stroke penalty. 

Aerial view of the 5th at Tuckahoe Creek. Image credit: Google Maps.

Of course it’s not just on the tee shot where you must steer clear of the hazards. The second and even third shots are also challenging. Most players elect to not go for the green on their second shot but instead lay up short of the green, trying to stay away from the water. The short third shot into the green has racked up countless water balls over the years. When the pin is placed on the front of the green, the water lurks only about 15 feet away from the hole. If the wind picks up, there is zero tolerance for an errant shot.  

On the Collegiate golf team, you won’t find a single player who hasn’t dumped at least a couple of shots in the water on this hole. In fact, I’d say without a doubt there will always be one or two players on the team each season who get brutally bested by this hole’s difficulty. It’s not uncommon to finish a nine-hole match at CCV and hear a teammate complaining about how they actually played really well, besides the atrociously high score they recorded on the 5th hole.

The last of these three standouts is the 16th hole at Richmond Country Club. The tricky par 4 requires precise decision making and multiple accurate shots to stay out of potential trouble. It is not a long hole at all, only stretching 380 yards. Its defense is a creek that runs completely across the fairway about 250 yards away from the tee box, which is typically about how far most players would fly their tee shots. The hole’s design forces the player to either take the risk of trying to fly their tee shot over the creek or hitting a strategic lay up shot to stay short of the hazard. The lay-up is the most common optionl however, it is not easy to place a tee shot in a good position while laying up. With houses down the left side of the hole, a ball that trickles into a neighboring yard is out of bounds and forces the player to re-tee and take a one stroke penalty. Even a well-struck lay up that finds that the fairway can end up in a difficult situation as you try to approach the green. Trees line the right side of the hole, and large tree limbs creep over into a decent portion of the right side of the fairway. Therefore, even if you are in the fairway, your path to the green can easily be blocked by overhanging tree limbs.

Once you have are safely positioned in the fairway and have a shot at the green, the challenge continues. A small, undulated green is guarded closely by two bunkers and a hazard about 15 yards to the left. The creek that jets across the fairway takes a sharp and runs alongside the right side of the hole up to about 15 yards off the edge of the green. Most players, after laying up short of the creek off the tee, have a longer shot into the green than they would prefer. Even after two very well-placed shots, the hole will not surrender a good score easily.

Aerial view of the 16th green at Richmond Country Club. Image credit: Google Maps.

The green is very undulated, and a misread or poorly struck putt can result in a difficult second putt to save par. If you don’t hit the green in two shots, certain pin placements can be nearly impossible to get close to from off of the green. A miss to the left of the green leaves you with an incredibly tough pitch shot as the slope of the green runs away from you and makes it extremely difficult to stop your ball. Sam Hahn (‘24), a member of Collegiate’s varsity golf team, says the hole is tough “because of the narrow fairway guarded by trees on both sides and a creek right in the landing area of your drive.” 

These three holes have sabotaged many of my good rounds throughout my golf career. Very often am I the guy to finish a match complaining about the 5th at the Tuckahoe Creek. Too many times I have played a steady first 10 holes at Independence, only to be terrorized by the brute that stands before on me the 11th. I know all too well that a good round at Richmond Country Club is in jeopardy the instant you step onto the 16th tee box. From all of this first-hand experience, I can tell you without a doubt that these three holes top the charts of Richmond’s most difficult.

Featured image credit: Your Golf Travel.