I was recommended to play this one while in the area and though it was raining the whole time I'm pretty glad I went.

The course is at the back of a huge multi use park with all manor of things that you would expect from a major park in a minor metro, plus horses!

As you walk past the lake on your right you will see a practice basket atop the hill and hole one is right behind it.

You jump right into the woods and the course is primarily wooded and winding course with several multi part par fours and really interesting lines. You need a full assortment of shots to do well from the long tees here and without a good command of a turnover shot you will be out of attack position on several holes. The finishing par 5 is brutal and a lot of fun.

This is a big time line hitters course and though you rarely need huge distance except for the couple of more open holes near the end but if you can throw 350 and hit a line you can score well.

The pads are turf from the longs and fairly large, but the shorts are natural with just stones marking them.

Baskets I think are Mach Vs and in good shape, and most of them have little next tee signs on the bottom to aid in navigation.

The tee signs are a little basic for a wooded course, it's just a hole number and par if I remember correctly and the mini map type would be better for this course since most of the holes are blind.

A few of the holes have shapes that require one specific shot to get a birdie and that's the the only method to clock it without a good bit of luck. Not many but a couple.

It holds a ton of water, made me glad I had on waterproof shoes, a lot of the fairways and most of the short pads were saturated at the moment.

It's a weird con but since the horses come down many of these paths, there is horse excrement everywhere.

Take the long walk to the parking lot instead of going near the lake, I was charged by a few geese and one I had to swing my mini bag at to keep from getting flogged. They are very aggressive.

Good Mach 3 baskets, good tee signs and very helpful next tee signs.
Heavily wooded holes for most of the course, with only three open, or partially open holes.
The White tees are not a real long course, but the tightness makes this challenging. Playing from the Blues would really up the challenge.
Good mix of left and right holes, with several straight holes also.
Not a ton of elevation in this part of the park, but what there is, was used on several holes.
Beautiful park, with many large activity areas you pass on the way in. The course is at the very back of park, mostly secluded holes in this DG only area, except for several crossings of a busy, paved greenway trail, part of the 52 mile long Virginia Capital Trail. I even answered a few DG questions from passing cyclists.
Oh, and several flyovers on final approach to Richmond Intl on the day I was there, very cool!

I stepped up to the First tee and discovered a turf teepad, I was very excited. Until a local standing there informed me this was the only one. The rest of the course has natural tees which are level and in pretty good shape, but a few were a little muddy.
There is about a 500' walk from the parking lot to the first tee, then an even longer walk back to the parking lot after 18. Oh yea, both walks were across beautiful grass with no other activities leading to #1 and a fishing pond and paved trail bordering the walk after #18.
Don't recall any benches on the course, a couple of long walks between holes means you are walking a lot more than the posted distance of the course.
The park needs to install a sign at the end of the parking lot pointing toward the first tee. As I was playing #16, I came across two guys obviously lost on the course. After parking, they had headed down the paved path and were looking for the first tee. Since there were several holes in that area, I told them their best bet was to play #10 and the back 9, then after #18, head towards #1 and play the front 9.

As I mentioned above, Dorey Park is a very large, beautiful park with Football/Soccer fields, baseball diamonds, equestrian area, large playground, tennis courts, dog park and fishing pond. There appears to be open areas near those activities as well as woods, yet this course was placed in a heavily wooded area, with very little access to any of the open areas. There are restrooms near the parking lot, but in the opposite direction from the course, I understand a water fountain is available at the nearby dog park.

The only two (and one partial) open holes use a pipeline ROW clearing, #5 is uphill, #17 is down, then uphill, finishing on a rocky slope, then #16 tees and plays in the ROW, with a sharp left turn into the treeline to get to a mostly hidden basket.

The most significant elevation changes are served up in pairs, #6 is straight and downhill, steep at the bottom and #7 is uphill with couple of different lines. #11 goes down and a long turn to the left, followed by #12 which is uphill and a sharp right at the top.

Some other interesting holes were:
#8 - short downhill shot down a very tight chute, very thick on both sides will leave you scrambling for par if you miss the fairway.
#15 - mostly flat and wide, through scattered trees, with multiple paths to the basket, kind of reminds me of a Houck design I have seen on courses.
#18 - if you are looking for scoring separation on the final hole, you should get it here. 347' from the whites, on a straight narrow fairway, but about 100-150' from the tee, there are a picket line of hardwood trees diagonally across the fairway. You have to flex something through there and hope it continues to the large green.

Even if the designer was allowed to add a couple of open holes on the walks from and to the Parking lot, they wouldn't fit in with the character of this course. It challenges you with wooded fairways and a variety of shots needed to score well. Beginners and intermediates should have a challenge from the Whites and the Blues (at 6000' +) should be enough to challenge anyone. It is a fun course to play, not overwhelming tight, but putting accuracy at a premium.