On Tuesday I headed up to Northern Virginia to meet up with someone from Instagram at Dominion Valley Country Club, his home course. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t get the chance to play many private courses, so when I do it is always a treat. We warmed up with a few range balls before heading out around noon. We ended up playing until about 5:30 PM, squeezing in 27 holes.

Dominion Valley is an Arnold Palmer design that opened in the early 2000’s. The course is part of an upscale community with all sorts of amenities, including the championship course – where we played – and the par-62 Regency course. The course works its way through the community and if you hit a really crooked one you can end up in someone’s yard, but that potential is probably limited to a couple holes on the back nine.

If you’ve read my page you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Palmer courses. And, Dominion Valley is no exception to the enjoyable Palmer philosophy. The fairways are wide and there is plenty of space to find a stray shot. It took me a few holes to get comfortable and I was able to scratch out some bogeys before starting a par string. I threw in two bad holes on the back nine, but walked away with a decent score.

My host and I played the blue tees which are 71.2/138/6429. The course is a par-72 with five par-5’s, five par-3’s and eight par-4’s. There are ample short iron opportunities with all the par-5’s, so you should have a chance to score. If you are a longer hitter then you can take some riskier lines to be rewarded.

The biggest difficulties at Dominion Valley will be probably be avoiding the large bunkers, trying to control the flight of the ball from the undulating fairways and navigating a handful of difficult holes. I thought the front nine had the majority of those difficult holes. The 5th, 6th, 9th and 12th holes at Dominion Valley should all be approached with caution!

The 5th and 6th turn a corner at the edge of the property and have trouble to the left. The 5th is a long par-5 with a forced carry and a small green tucked next to a water hazard. The 6th is a mid-length par-3 with that same hazard lurking to the left. The 6th has a massive bunker to catch the golf balls of those who bail to the right. I’m pretty sure that bunker is at least the size of the green.

The 9th is another interesting hole on the front nine. It is a 155 yard par-3 with an island green, so the water surrounding it is bound to grab plenty of golf balls. The green is large, but on a breezy day you’ll need to pull the right stick and hit it solid.

The back nine is gettable, as long as you can avoid disaster on the longish 12th hole. The 12th is 412 yards with trouble lining both sides. The tee shot is fairly open, however things get narrow on the approach, especially with a mid iron.

As you’d expect for a private course, the conditions were nice. The maintenance crew was out working on spots in the fairways to increase drainage, but that didn’t influence play. I had great lies and was able to cleanly hit the ball. I even got a few springy bounces from them. The greens were smooth and rolled at a medium speed, with a few spots recovering from the year’s harsh weather.

The thing that struck me the most about Dominion Valley is that it is a good members course. It is a course where someone can come out and play their game and their shots. I had a suspicion that I’d like Dominion Valley, and I did.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):