Kinloch
Kinloch is in the Richmond, VA area and has been a staple on the Golf Digest Top 100 list, occupying a spot there since 2005. Yet, Kinloch flies under the radar. To note, Dallas National ranks one above and Maidstone one below Kinloch on the 2019 rankings yet I hear much more on those courses in the golf blogs/architecture sites than I do Kinloch. I’m not sure why that is but am glad that they have ranked this as it was a really nice and interesting course.
I played here in 2018 on a pretty rare work trip to Richmond. One of our partners is down here so I called my pro to see if he could arrange this for us. Kinloch couldn’t have been more accommodating. They set us up. Treated us fantastically. Everyone from the grill folks to the locker room bartender were first class to us. I have never made a request to play Dallas National nor Maidstone but maybe I will. I want to see if they are as gracious as Kinloch. I bet not.
To the course, our caddy recommended we reverse the nines so we wouldn’t get stuck behind a foursome. Sometimes this detracts from a course because you don’t get a sense of the architect’s hole progression or get the drama of holes that were conceived as the finishers not mid round holes. I didn’t feel that here. While the 18th is one of the most dramatic and favorite holes of mine, the ninth was just as dramatic and would/did make a great finishing hole. Sixteen is on my top holes in golf list. It’s a hard dogleg left – a cape hole but more so on your approach than on your drive – you need to flirt with the water on your drive to get anywhere near enough to get to the green in regulation. Anything left on the approach? La agua!
The course conditioning was second to none here as well. This is a parkland course with tree- lined fairways. Sometimes fairway consistency struggles in these environments but not here. I don’t remember a brown spot or patchy area anywhere on the course. I think where the designer added double-wides as fairways was where the sun and air may have been impeded by tighter tree corridors. Pretty ingenious.
The course offers a lot of split fairways so if you’re good, you need to make decisions with the driver in your hand. If you spray the ball a bit, you have room to err but then your approach is gonna be tough. Most of the golf rankers are scratch handicap guys and only look at strategic elements considering other scratch golfers. This is a great strategic course for hackers as well though. Miss on the driver on a lot of the holes and you’re not hunting through the woods or dropping three 200 yards out. However, you’ve put yourself in a position where your approach is tough and needs to be made with a low iron or hybrid. This IMO is the hallmark of a great design – challenge the scratch and bogey golfer without being overly penal.
Kinloch also features an 18-1/2th hole – a par three over water to settle bets. Make sure if you play the course, you take a shot here.
As I noted, I’m rarely in the Richmond area so don’t have a list of recommendations for bars and restaurants. The one we did go to though was awesome, The Boathouse at Rockett’s Landing.
Golf Scrapbook 