We recently spent a weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, visiting our son. While there, we decided to play Walnut Creek Disc Golf Course, a course we played seven years ago. Nick drove up from Richmond to play with us.

The course is south of Charlottesville, off Route 29, in North Garden, Virginia. There is a $3 entrance fee to get into the park. Follow the road until it ends in a parking lot on the creek. The first tee is to the right of the parking lot. Unfortunately, we got a little turned around and had to backtrack to the first tee. Most holes have two tees and two baskets, offering a nice variety. We chose to play the shorter tees and baskets in the interest of time.

The first hole runs adjacent to the creek and is a relatively straight shot. The basket lies just to the left side of the fairway. Unfortunately, I kept throwing into the woods, giving me a seven on the hole. That’s not exactly how I like to start a round.

The second tee is at the top of the hill. You throw down the hill and over the water to the basket on the other side. Nick threw first, and we heard the resounding plop of his disc hitting the water. My first throw didn’t even reach the water, landing near the edge. I then threw my disc into the water, not once but twice. Luckily, I used a water disc, so it was floating on top but directly in the middle of the creek.

There was no way to reach my disc from the shore. Nick stripped to his boxers and went in after it. He was delighted to find his disc as well. Chris made it across the water, landing neatly on the bank, and then hit the basket for a birdie.

The third basket is up the hill, tucked inside the tree line, and the fourth is further up the hill in the woods. We left the woods for the fifth hole, with the basket sitting on the hill overlooking the creek.

The sixth tee is across the field from the fifth basket and inside an opening in the woods. It is a narrow uphill shot ending at the basket in the field. Next, we walked to the end of the field and turned right to get to the seventh tee. This one plays into the woods with an elevated basket sitting on the edge of a gully.

After making the basket, the path leads across the gully. The eighth hole forms a horseshoe shape. The shorter basket was missing, but a yellow pole marked the spot. I thought I threw a terrible shot when my disc made a sharp left into the woods instead of following the fairway. I was delighted when I realized I had found a shortcut through the woods and made par.

The ninth basket plays to the right, tucked behind some trees. The tenth hole is a straight shot with short log walls guarding the basket. The eleventh hole seems uncomplicated. The basket, perched at the edge of the woods, is on a steep hill above the out-of-bounds road.

Across the road is the twelfth hole. It plays along a path to the right, where the basket sits tucked inside the woods. I made the second of my three pars for the day.

For the thirteenth hole, the best bet is to stay to the left. Play is across an opening to the basket tucked behind the bushes on the right. If you throw too far right, heavy brush creates a jail between you and the basket. Nick went far right but managed to roll his disc through the jail, making his par shot.

The fourteenth hole plays down a narrow passage with a sharp left to the basket tucked behind a bush. I threw an incredible drive, with my disc turning at the perfect time. I barely missed my birdie shot, giving me my third par of the day. While my drive was better than Chris’s, he had an excellent second shot, landing the birdie.

The fifteenth tee is to the right and plays down a narrow path through the rhododendron. We all managed to throw into the bushes. We had the bonus of finding a giant funnel-web spider near Chris’s disc.

The sixteenth hole plays down a valley with a narrow backstop of downed branches behind the basket. My disc landed on its edge and rolled past the basket into the backstop. If it weren’t for that, my disc would have sailed far past the basket and down the hill.

We came back out of the woods for the seventeenth hole. The tee is at the top of a steep hill with the creek to the right. The basket is on the left, near the bottom. There is an out-of-bounds line in front of the basket, but we couldn’t figure out what it meant.

You can play the eighteenth basket across the water or around the right. I envisioned my throw going around the right, but reality saw my disc land in the water instead. We could see the disc from the bank, but it was a little further out than our retriever pole reached. We attempted to snag it with the golden retriever, but that only pushed it deeper into the water.
The water did not appear too deep, so I decided to wade in after it. As it turns out, what seemed to be the bottom was a layer of plants. By the time I got to the disc, the water was up to my neck, but I was happy to recover the disc.

After playing the eighteenth hole, I followed the signs to the parking lot. As it turned out, it would have been shorter to walk straight to the parking lot instead of following the path. Even though we ended up in the water twice, it was a great day to play, and we had a blast. Chris ended up with eight over par, Nick 14 over, and I shot 28 over.