Sherando Park is a simple course that offers some fun plays. With layouts that reward great shot-making, players can see some low scores.
- Don't let the first two holes fool you. Two field holes quickly lead to a series of shorter, hilly layouts in the woods. Some sharp doglegs make holes #3 - 6 (the longest being 201 feet) non-guaranteed 2s. In fact, you might be searching for a disc deep in the woods if you get too aggressive and miss your line.
- For such a compact space, these holes do not feel on top of each other. I felt like I kept winding back and forth, expecting to start overlapping with other holes. Instead, these holes have the proper spacing.
- For a short course - average hole length 260 feet from the regular tees - there's a high risk/reward level here. Average players could play smart, safe, boring rounds and card 54s. Or you can try to be aggressive, even if it's only selectively so, and start seeing your fair share of 2s on the card. Just be prepared for some bogey 4s as well once you start playing that game.
- Not a single blind tee-shot that I can remember. Compared to other courses nearby - Jim Barnett, Signal View, and even, Poor Farm House - you're able to see where you're throwing from the tees. With mediocre tee signs, you need the help.
- #9, 12, and 14 all offer classic straight-line holes with fairways lined by trees on both sides. They range from a tight line on #9 to more spacious fairways on the other two holes.
- The park has some very nice-looking soccer fields. You'll get to see all of them up close and personal during your 5-minute walk from the parking lot to the first tee.

Navigation can be greatly improved. The tee signs are useless as there's not much info on them. At least the hole numbers are correct.
- Getting to the first hole, I was thinking about playing the long tee. I couldn't tell for certain if the lone tee pad off to the side was the one for #1. There's another tee pad in the middle of the field that serves no purpose. Perhaps it's for an old layout - #9, perhaps? - or it's another random, unmarked long tee.
- The long tees were clearly put in well after this course was designed. It shows as there are a couple of awkward lines right off the tee pad making for some unnecessarily and unnatural shots. A little more work should have gone in to making a true second layout if that's the intended goal.
- Benches, trashcans, water fountains and other amenities aren't to be found within the course itself. There are picnic tables at hole #1, but that's as close as you'll find.

Sherando Park is a good, change-of-pace course. Being more of a mid-range layout (13 holes are under 300 feet), it gives players a chance to rest their arms and instead focus on accuracy.
- I surmise the fairways are a little tighter in the summer when the trees have full coverage, and are a little more open in the winter, when leaves have fallen. That's a good thing because a couple of holes had low ceilings during my June round.
- LHBH players will enjoy the sharp dogleg rights on #6 & 7. #7 has the added challenge of trees, giving players the option of hitting the narrow route, or going wider, taking the safe route.
- What is it with courses in northern Virginia along I-81 and the inability to have a good closing hole? Probably half the holes on this course would have resulted in a better ending to the round that the wide-open, no-obstacle current #18.
- This was a good, mid-range course. Even if you can't throw a tee-shot more than 250 feet, you'll still be able to make your way around this course in good shape.
- This is an average to slightly above average mid-range course. This falls in the 2.75 range in my book. The near quarter-mile walk to and fro the parking lot is ridiculous. It's also as long as the first 4 holes combined.

-Easy to follow and beautiful park with the course off to its self.
-Variety of holes
-Good for all different skill levels
-Like how it loops around

-Only bad thing is the hike to the first tee/course area. Luckily i knew from the other reviews where to look for it at.

Fun course to check out. I was in the area for the day and it made a fun little game never being there before. I will go back when near by. I suggest you go as well if you are in town.

- Course plays over a nice park that is open and conducive to disc golf but doesn't seem like there would be too many run-ins with non disc golfers.

- This course is pretty old school in regard to being broken-in (well identified paths from hole to hole, benches, and groomed trees and foliage). Hole lengths are pretty short as well and pars follow standards from the 1970s-80s. Nevertheless, there are elevation changes and doglegs that make it interesting. A few blind shots, while short in length, require concentration and "scouting" to ensure accuracy and par.

- Front nine are sort of like a warm-up (in terms of hole lengths and placement of baskets), while the back nine require a little more skill and finesse.

- An unusual number of right-turning doglegs that favor lefties and require anhyzer releases.

- Lots of benches for seating between holes in case the course can get crowded. Baskets and teepads are in pretty good condition, too.

- Practice basket and ample parking.

- Scenic views and a nice park landscape with nice locals.

- There are plenty of chances for aces, and course patrons have expressed few reservations about making that known. Numerous signs are covered in sharpie, denoting people's aces (a huge peeve of mine), and some signs are really graffitied. Aside from sign vandalism, the course is maintained pretty well.

- Hole #8 is really the only hole that has any decent length to it. While I'm not the type that likes to see every hole turned into a marathon, a few more chances to air out some drivers would be fantastic.

- As I already mentioned, hole lengths are pretty short and despite many holes being in the woods, a true technical challenge is limited, as few holes (with the exception of 13) use the dense tree placement to make it interesting. The pars are definitely out of date, too; play most of them as threes if you're more than a recreational player.

- Back nine has more challenge and variety in shot selection than the front nine and is therefore more enjoyable. If I had to rate the first nine compared to the last nine, I would give them a 3.0 and 3.5, respectively.

- While the course isn't particularly difficult, that's what I enjoy about it. It's a nice relaxing set of 18 holes and a great place to take a newbie without frustrating him/her. It's a nice scenic walk between holes too and that adds to the allure of the course. By no means am I a great player, but there were a couple of instances where I nearly saw flashes of my first ace go before my eyes. I can see why there are so many of them here; I just wish people found different ways to celebrate their aces!

good mix of open and wooded. baskets are in great shape. There is Pars on score card for beginners and pros.

Just didnt stand out in any way to me. there Is not a single hole I can remember (played one week ago) that really stands out and makes me want to go back real soon. Many of the holes favor left handed or RHFH throwers, as a lot of them dog leg to the right.

It is in a great spot right off of 81 and makes a great stop if taking a longer trip along this highway. I would not drive a long distance to play this course, but if I was driving by it, I would definately stop and play it again.

Nice mix of open field holes and technical woods holes. There are a number of fairly easy birdie opportunities and a couple challenging pars (like #11) making this a great course to learn on. Great use of the elevation changes that are available. I'm partial to holes that traverse valleys and there are a couple of those here. #11 is one of my favorites, it plays across a couple of those valleys and has a number of strategically placed cedars, I imagine this is the toughest scoring hole on the course. #9 is well designed in that it's wide open to start but the pin is well placed back in a grove, leaving a fairly tight gate for a straight approach and a risky but available hyzer bomb lane that will punish you if you miss it. A couple other holes (#7 and #16 I think) that start you in a hole where you have to clear a tight early gate at the right angle and pace to reach the hole located a ways out in the open. Decent sized concrete tees.

Course location is very convenient to I-81, and some classic Americana schlock in Dinosaur World (at Rts 522 and 340 I believe). You're also only a few minutes from Front Royal and the start of Skyline Drive

There's a fairly long walk from the parking lot to the course along side a soccer field. Fairly flat for my tastes. Not too many really challenging pars.

You can use the long walk to warm up your arm on the way to the first tee if there aren't any kids on the soccer field so maybe it's not that much of a con. I haven't played the long tees here, I might have to bump this course up after I get the chance.

Consider including this course on your road trips to Walnut Creek and/or Paw Paw, it's worth the stop.

Nice park facilities that are well maintained, including a clean bathroom. You can play all 18 in a row pretty quickly. Or if you're in a real hurry, you could actually play either the front 9 or the back 9 as separate courses if you wanted. Either way, you finish close to where you started. And there's a practice basket pretty close to #1.

Efficient map available. Definitely print the map that there's a link to on this site. The course is very easy to navigate, and with the map you shouldn't have any trouble identifying proper tees and pins.

There are good signs at each tee showing the length and basic path of the hole. Having the alternate par for each hole on the tee signs makes it more fun for newbies. The concrete tees are good and long and the baskets are all in good shape.

There was a very good mix of open holes, wooded holes and hybrid holes that played both in and out of the woods, The wooded holes aren't really heavily wooded, though, and there are clearly defined paths to the pin on every hole. Experienced players shouldn't have much trouble staying on the fairways. The length isn't overwhelming on either the open or wooded holes. The grass was well maintained and the underbrush along most of the wooded holes wasn't too thick when I played there.

The holes make good use of what elevation changes are available on this plot of land.

Good variety of left and right turning holes too... with more right turning holes than almost any course that I've played. (This was kind of a bummer since I had just lost my Stingray a couple days before I played here.)

It's not a big deal, but the first (or 10th if just playing the back 9) tee is a bit of a walk from the parking lot.

If you're a big arm and live for 400' plus long holes, then this course could disappoint you (only a negative from that perspective). And if you love water holes, there are none.

I played this course with my totally newbie brother in law and it was a lot of fun for both of us. The course was very interesting for me with a lot of missed birdie opportunities on my part. And it didn't overwhelm my BIL, playing his first 18. There was nothing about the course that should really keep a newb from playing and having fun.

I think that there were only two open holes that I couldn't reach with my typical 325' drive. And on the wooded holes I think that I used my Aviar Putt and Approach to drive on every hole exept one. So experienced players should be able to score pretty low here. Playing it for the first time, and missing several birdie putts, I was still able to score a 2 under par 52.

I believe that the longest hole is #8 at 440'. It's slightly downhill and I came up only 40' short of the pin. I was thrilled as this was well beyond my average drive distance!

Using the amatuer par, my BIL was able to score several pars and I think even a birdie or two.

All in all this is a really good course. It's not the kind of course that you'd drive 500 miles just to play... but if you're on I81 anywhere near Winchester, VA, I'd definitely recommend checking it out. I'll definitely be back and it's about 1 1/2 hours for me to get there.

And finally, one note of caution and one reccomendation... If your heading to the course from I81 and your directions say to take LandGrant Lane, don't. The park entrance is about a couple hundred yards past LandGrant. I drove back LandGrant and it dead-ended at a farm. And bring bug spray. The gnats were pretty thick at times on the open holes.

Stephens City is what one might call a remote suburb of the DC metro area - a little over an hour west. This puts it in the Appalachian foothills and so the DGC enjoys a gently rolling topography - hills everywhere, but none to long or to steep. The DGC was actually relocated from another area in the park (across the highway) over a decade ago - it used to be a total woods course - but the parks department decided to push it to the back of a newly develpoed ball field facility, giving us what we know today. Having done that, parking is plentiful - but requires a 1/4 mile walk to get to the first tee.
The course may not move much, but there are several holes with multiple pin placements. And when they have events, there are a fairly standard set of alternate teepads, that make for a nice added challenge to the original daily layout.
Being added to the ball field facility has its perks, as there are nice bathrooms and water available. Being pushed to the back of the park is also sometimes advantageous - as there are virtually no park users that venture onto the golf course - so it's basically a dedicated use area.
Baskets are all in good condition, and concrete tees are flush to grade, and adequately sized.

That 1/4 mile walk.

The course in it's standard layout is fun to play, but not exceedingly challenging. It's fun because it brings the natural topography into play on almost every hole in a way that helps teach you how to make a disc turn (one way or the other). But it's not very long, so errant shots seldom pump up your score.
The tournament layout is a little more challenging, and the spring tournament has a history of wacky windy weather that adds a pleasantly challenging dimension to the course. That event is on my list virtually every year - an enjoyable place to play.