This course has 9 concrete tee pads and 18 baskets. The Discatcher Pro baskets are in good condition and the yellow and red bands help you easily differentiate between the front and back 9. There is a course map and practice basket near the parking area.

There are many small elevation changes and rolling hills through the course. It is completely wooded with scattered trees or dense woods lining the fairways.

There is a great shot variety with plenty of left and right curving shots required. Considering there are only 9 tee pads, many of the holes feel completely different because of such different basket placement.

There's an excellent variety of hole length for such a wooded course with holes ranging from about 170 to 440. Despite how short some of the holes are, I don't consider any of them gimmie birdies because of all the trees. Hole 6 and15 are my favorite holes here with the big S curved fairway and hole 15 is definitely a pro par 4.

Navigating the course can be a bit tough in a few places.

Some of the tee signs are missing making it tough to locate baskets on a few holes.

Some of the tee pads are very narrow and not very long.

The rough was very dense when I was here.

Due to all the trees, the fairways on one or two holes seemed a little on the lucky side without a very well defined route to the basket.

Less experienced players could be frustrated by the many trees, dense rough and possibility to loose a disc, but more advanced players who can keep it on or near the fairway should enjoy the challenge this course presents.

Overall the is a very fun course that uses the land well and does a good job feeling more like an 18 hole course than a 9 hole course.

The signs that are there are very helpful since there is two holes per fairway. Nice baskets in great condition. Set up well good use of the area, two holes per fairway. Good elevation changes. good variety of distances, never gets all that long. Variety of shots need, forehand and backhand is very helpful to have here. A little challenging because of some tighter fairways.

Some signs are missing. Some tee pads are short or really narrow(holes 1 and 10) Rough is very thick you do not want to get in it, and there is tons of poison, be careful. With the double hole a fairway there is a small design flaw in my opinion. Almost all holes on front 9 trail off or dog leg to the right, and almost all the back 9 trail off or dog leg to the right. So if your right handed like me you are throwing almost all forehand drives on the front and then backhand on the back.

Bird sanctuary pretty cool.

My personal rating for this course might be higher than a 3; It's just to my taste: tight fairways, all woods, lots of short-to-medium, quirky holes mixed in with a few long tunnel shots, ubiquitous steep hills that demand cautious landings, major punishment for getting off the fairway. Every shot is a risk-reward decision, and a wide variety of shots are required. I think it's great, but I know it's not for everyone.

The course is well mowed and kept. It's easy to navigate for the most part. The signs are accurate and helpful, though a few more wouldn't hurt. The tees are grippy concrete. Trash cans and benches are at almost every tee. And there are nice gazebos to chill in when you're done.

You might think that 9 tees with 18 pins would get boring, but the alternate placements are so thouroughly different that it's not even like you're throwing the same fairways on most holes.

The tees tend to be narrow and a few are too short. Navigating from the yellow baskets can be tricky in a few places; signs from the red baskets are more helpful. I saw no water or restrooms. At least one hole (11) throws across a walking path, and other paths criss-cross the paths between holes, which can be confusing. The walks between 5-6/14-15 and 9-10 are unusually long.

Some might consider 9 tees for 18 pins a con. The course has no open shots, zero; that might be a con for some, as might the very thick schule. And particularly on the front nine (yellow) there are a number of shots that some might regard as too short and/or gimmicky (though I liked them.)

The front nine (yellow) is significantly shorter and easier than the back nine (red). Also the yellows favor the forehand while the reds favor the backhand. I suggest alternating colors as you play to mix up the challenge a bit: throw even numbers red and odd numbers yellow.

Did I mention the hills? It's very hilly; not a stroll in the park.

- Good basket placements. To do well on this course you're going to need a good mix of left and right shots.
- Good hole maps. There doesn't seem to be any maps of the whole course that i can find, but each tee pad has a signpost with a pretty good map of the hole.
- Great use of elevation. The couple long holes make use of those great "over the valley" drives we all love.
- Rest stops. Almost every tee has a garbage can and a bench.

- Thorns. The rough here is completely filled with a dozen different kinds of thorny vines and bushes, and if you've got to go in after your disc..well...i hope you're wearing long pants.
- Mud. Even though this course is set in rolling hills, it still gets awful soupy out there after it rains.
- Some of the tee pads are rather small. If you like to use a big x-step when you drive, you might feel a little boxed in.

- This course doesn't offer a lot of opportunities to throw long drives. If you only play disc golf to launch those long bombs, then this course may not be for you. But if you can appreciate that long drives are only one part of a greater game, then Catalpa is a nice place to be.
- If you're going to bring alcohol to the course, keep it out of sight when you're in view of the parking lot. The park is regularly patrolled and Richmond cops are notoriously heavy-handed with college kids and non-residents.

What I personally like and how this course stacks up:
1) Holes with good risk/reward -- B-
2) Holes that have rewarding birdie opportunities -- B+
3) More wooded than open - lots of variety of shots required caused by hole shape and topography -- B+
4) Natural beauty (Appalachian beauty preferred) and seclusion -- A
5) Multi-shot holes with defined landing zones, good risk/reward and multiple options to play them -- NA

I ranked this course subjectively based on my own personal enjoyment factor...more accurately my "personal addiction factor". Since I have played a decent number of courses (115 18-hole, 50 9-hole as of early 2009), my hope is that players/explorers who have similar tastes will find my ratings list helpful as they chose courses to play and explore.

Over time, I expect to fill some of my reviews in with more descriptive verbiage...if what I say adds anything to what has already been written. For now, my list is more important to me than the verbiage of my reviews.

I fully expect others with different tastes/philosophies to disagree with me. See my profile for my rating philosophy.

Holes are short and wooded, favoring controlled shots over big arms. The fairways are cleared well enough that you don't have to thread the needle on every shot. Does a great job of using 2 baskets per fairway, and not making it seem like you're playing the same hole twice. I liked the tee signs, they had info on different species of bird, at least it would give you something to do if you were behind a slow group.

Stay in the fairway, or else... the course is in a bird sanctuary, so I wouldn't expect the rough to be cleared much. With having 18 holes on 9 fairways, I could see backups being a problem if many people were playing.

If you stay in the fairway this course is pretty easy, lots of 2 and 3 opportunities. I land way left on 8 every time, home to the thickest brush pile in the world. Be warned.

It looks like the club is trying to remedy the mud problem by placing stepping stones along certain areas of the path, but I've never played after a rain so I can't say for sure if it works or not.

Since there are multiple paths going everywhere, it could be confusing on which one to take, look for the white signs with arrows on them.

If I had to choose a wooded course around Lexington, I'd play Veteran's over Catalpa, its longer and more challenging I think, but this is still a fun course.

I saw a turkey there last time I played...

Despite only having 9 tees, this course does a remarkable job of changing up the alternate holes to keep it from feeling like a repeat. The first 9 are mostly sidearm holes while the back 9 are better for backhand throwers. The course has been cleared fairly well, so although it's a wooded course, there are straight shots to the holes and plenty of birdie possibilities.

Horribly muddy. Hole 7/17 (or 6/16?) is nasty to walk. Also beware of the house ruins (former meth lab?) and rusty nails. Hole 2 is right next to a lake, and if you sidearm over the fence, you probably won't be getting your disc back.

Definitely worth the 30 minute drive from Lexington if you're up for a fairly fast round.