Birkdale Golf Club

First off, I am a longtime member of Birkdale and I have finally had enough. I decided to play one last round of 18 and the experience only confirmed any of my last doubts about leaving.

I will start with the good:

1) about half of the fairways are in decent to good condition

2) The staff are always fairly friendly

3) The driving range is in pretty good shape

Now the bad:

1) Most of the greens are just awful between pitch marks, bare spots or weeds

2) Several of the fairways have dirt and or gravel rocks near the edges which if your ball lands near them will only cause damage to your club with having to move your ball. I am not talking out of bounds I am talking just to the side of the rough and prior to reaching the cart paths

3) Overcrowding and poor course management. During my group's visit we had to wait on the first par 5 with 4 other groups stacked and the bottle neck never ended. The pace was terrible and nearly enough to quit and ask for a refund

4) Tee boxes are complete crap for a good number of holes, either they are a hill, sparse grass or just in general terrible shape

5) Any of the holes near water have a stagnant smell, and are covered in goose crap which include holes 5, 9 and 18.

I really wanted to stay with Birkdale but even thoug the course is only a 10 minute drive, I will be joinig a new club much further away for a more enjoyable experience.

I don't understand all of the reviews about Birkdale being in good shape. They must be from players who remember how much worse it was compared to the current conditions.

You get what you pay for so save your money and go to a nicer looking and well managed course.

It's not a bad course, and the greens were in pretty great shape. The fairways had some pretty rough spots and even bare spots and the cart path is in really bad shape in some areas. Also, please adjust the governors on the golf carts. I could walk faster than those things. Overall, not bad and I'm sure I'll be back to play again, but not at the top of my list of courses in the area.

Was a nice little course. Only played the back 9, but it was nicely nestled into a community. No switchback holes, which was nice. Good value for the price! Would go back.

Fair Challenge when playing from the appropriate tees.
Little pricey but the course was in very good shape.

Great scenery, smooth greens, even the carts ride smoothly. No complaints, couldn’t ask for better golf.

For the money this course is always decent. Fairways were a little long and furry, rough is inconsistent. Greens were good though, and overall it was an enjoyable round

My group played Birkdale about 6-8months ago and “swore” we wouldn’t play it again ever, because the conditions were so bad. Everything from the tees with no grass, to the fairways with more bald areas than Charles Barkley’s head, to the greens with so many unrepaired ball marks that every putt was an exercise in futility, it was a complete disaster.
Then a friend said he played there in April and things had really changed. So reluctantly we went to see for ourselves and was extremely surprised in how much better the conditions are now. Tee boxes with new sod, fairways with cut and trimmed grass and redone greens with (we believe) a different grass that holds up excellently to the wear and tear of the heavy play that Birkdale gets. Major KUDOS to the greens keeper and his/her staff for the effort in pulling a great layout like Birkdale from the craphole it had become to being one of the best in Richmond We will gladly put Birkdale at the top of the list of courses to play around Richmond.
The only complaint we have is that we played behind a foursome that must have all been absolute beginners that never heard of allowing much faster groups to play through. We waited on EVERY SINGLE SHOT for all 18 holes. A Marshall would have helped but alas none were around.

This is a great run course. Nice range to warm up. Green fairways at the end of winter when others are still brown. Greens had recently been worked but should be great in a couple of weeks. We will go back every chance we get.

The first nine holes were closed due to aeration work. The Pro didn't tell me this when I checked in. I was not offered any refund despite having paid for 18 holes