Green's Folly - South Boston, VA

HardcoreLooper · September 8, 2019

Virtually every week, I truck on down from Richmond, VA to High Point, NC to visit one of my clients. I have two choices for the drive, the mindless, soul-sucking I85 or the country road of Route 360. I've scouted out all the courses on both routes, and I always keep my clubs in the car. It was 5:30 PM when I hit South Boston, so I figured why not stop and play nine at Greens Folly?

When I pulled into the parking lot and took a look around, the first thing I did was untuck my shirt. This place was definitely no-frills. But the front porch was covered with backpacks; there were a ton of kids out on the golf course, and that made me feel good.

This place is unashamedly country, and it's exactly what I'd expect on a country road in rural southern Virginia. I mean, it's basically an old plantation. And while it seems like a great name for a golf course, the place is named for Reverend Berryman Green and how foolish it was for him to build a grand home out in the middle of nowhere. The history of the place (linked above) is actually a good read. The manor house is stately, but it's fallen on hard times.

The conditioning is about what you'd expect. There's grass covering a fair amount of the ground, but you need to roll the ball around to make it playable. The greens are puttable but inconsistent. A few have been overtaken by weeds.

And there's just a little bit of weird going on

But as usual, I am a sucker for land movement.

Twitter is cutting off the picture, but that was a 249 yard 5 iron off the tee. It's ridiculously downhill. The course rolls up and down over the landscape, with a nice mix of tight, tree-lined holes and others that are WFO. I had time to play holes 1-12, but it was close to dark and I figured I had time for one last hole. And how could I turn down the opportunity to play a 667 yard hole? I was pretty disappointed in not being able to reach in three, then I looked at the card and saw that it was a par 6.

Green's Folly is another golf course that I would not recommend going out of the way for, but if for some reason you find yourself in South Boston, it's a fun place to slap the ball around for a few hours.