After our round at Laurel Hill we headed back to Haymarket for an afternoon round at Dominion Valley Country Club. I was here last year to check out the Arnold Palmer Signature course and this time around my friend offered for us to play on the Regency course.
Regency is also a Palmer design but it has more of a family/social focus, as it is a par-62 mid-length course. Still, I’m always thrilled to play a new course and I’ve started to enjoy some shorter courses the last couple years!
If you get a chance to play here I’m sure your time on Regency will be a lot like mine – with golf swings overshadowed by friendship! Plus, the afternoon turned out memorable because of the awesome sky and a couple pesky storms.
We teed off shortly after 2pm with some ominous storms nearby. We only made it to the 2nd tee before the thunderstorm hit! We waited it out and were back at it. Then, our round got interrupted again by some more thunder, lightning and rain! We ended up with two rain delays but we managed to get to play all the holes out here. The storms allowed for some beautiful pictures so make sure to check those out!
What you’ll find at Regency is a super fun layout with ten par-3’s and eight par-4’s. From the gold tees the course tops out at 4,052 yards, but we opted for the blue tees which are 3,571 (rating of 58.8 and slope of 107). If you are a big hitter then the blues allow you some chances to drive the par-4’s and plenty of options. I’m not a big hitter so I just guided it out there on the par-4’s and took my chances with a wedge.
The course has a parkland style design and lots of little lakes that you’ll need to avoid. There is also some nice landscaping, mounding and enough natural areas to keep things interesting, as well. My first-timer tip would be not to go over the greens and into the mounding. After the rain blew through the course was sparkling pretty good, especially the green complexes!
I thought the best thing about Regency were all the short par-3’s! Of the ten par-3’s only one was longer than 128 yards. Even from the gold tees you’ll have plenty of short irons. Hitting a wedge close isn’t my normal game, but it was fun to at least think that I could knock down some flags! These par-3’s have plenty of water in play including the 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th holes.
The conditions were very nice, with the highlight being the carpet-like fairways. The greens appeared to be a few weeks out of aeration so they should be all healed up soon.
Regency is a neat little course that you shouldn’t overlook if you end up playing the main course at Dominion Valley! It won’t take long to play and presents well visually – so there is a lot to like.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):