Turkey Hill Park

Took the day off work and drove a little over an hour to check out this course -- played one round short to short, followed by a long to long round. It's a nice set up, with concrete short and long pa ... show more ›

Took the day off work and drove a little over an hour to check out this course -- played one round short to short, followed by a long to long round. It's a nice set up, with concrete short and long pads with excellent hole signage, and a short and long basket on every hole except maybe one or two, so there's a lot of variety available. The front 9 are very open park-style, flat and grassy with enough trees to keep things interesting. The back 9 takes one back into some woods, but nothing too tricky (at least compared to Seneca Park). There is a little water around to keep things interesting, with some water carries -- but again, nothing that's too challenging for even a casual player like myself. Actually, one thing I did really like about the course is that even playing solo, it would be difficult to lose a disc here. The closest I came was on one or two holes where the disc slid under some leaves. The course actually plays very quickly -- I think I got both rounds in with a short break in under 3 hours? And yes, I could hear turkeys gobbling off and on the whole time! Overall, it was an enjoyable visit to a nicely maintained course, but not one I'd drive an hour for again.

Pros: Perfect Signage for every tee, basket and inbetween make it easy to find baskets and not get lost when moving along the course. Very open course layout for people that love to drive long shots w ... show more ›

Pros: Perfect Signage for every tee, basket and inbetween make it easy to find baskets and not get lost when moving along the course. Very open course layout for people that love to drive long shots with min-mod technicality. The open layout is great for novices and intermediate players, and a good warmup/style course for advanced players. The water features are all playable, and unless you drive it into the center of the pond, you can easily get your disc back because of the 30-40ft poles that are positioned on each major water feature. This is a great course to practice driving over water shots (4 and 18) without fear of losing anything because of the recovery poles. There is a little of everything on this course tees on/towards hills/elevation (12, 14), driving downhill (11), technical woods (some of 10/16 and *13), over-water drives (4, 18-B), low-technical open distance drives (6, 8, 17, 18). It is pretty impossible to lose your disc on this course, there are no inaccessible terrain features or overbrush that will consume your worn plastic.

Cons: There really isn't too many cons for this course. This course does a little of everything without being the best in any of those areas. A lot of the more technical shots or interesting shots are short sub-350ft range. There is a small natural ravine bordering the wooded shots that make it difficult and mildly dangerous to retrieve your discs if they end up in them. The ravine is noticeable behind 11, which is the only significant downhill shot, and one that can easily be overshot into the ravine, and also noticeable on 13 if you try to drive around the path from the blue. Another note on 13 is that it feels completely different from the rest of the course, almost like walking on a completely new course. That feel is because 13 is really the only true wooded technical shot in the entire course, well, half of 16 and 10 as well (but both are relatively short).

Other Thoughts: This course fits my style. I'm an intermediate player with a little over 2 years experience playing in Colorado, Virginia and Maryland. I'm still working on my driving control and this course fits my need while not being a complete technical challenge. The two girls I played with, who had limited experience playing loved this course because of the lower technicality and it also gave them confidence in their drive and release. Overall course traffic seemed to be low, which may be because of the course being relatively new and also it being Winter (but hey, I would play in my snowshoes in Colorado..). As for the amenities around, there's a mall within 5miles of the course with a food court that has pretty good food. There are a bunch of liquor stores in the area, and restaurants to grab a beer within 5-10mi.

Overall, it is a great course that has a completely different feel from a lot of the other courses in the area and a worthwhile drive to try it out. I currently drive an hour from Fairfax to play here, mostly because my girlfriend (and also I) love it, but also because it beats out my local courses Bluemont, Burke Lake and Bull Run in a variety of ways.