Riverfront

Located in the heart of Hampton Roads on the banks of the Nansemond River, near the mouth of the James River, the Riverfront Golf Club at Harbor View is the centrepiece of a resort-style residential development that also offers sporting activities such as volleyball, tennis and swimming.

The site is ideal for golf with tidal marshland and water bordering most of the holes. There’s also a little movement in the landscape on parts of the property – a rare commodity in this flat area of Virginia – and Tom Doak certainly made the most of what he had to work with when he fashioned the course at the end of the 1990s.

The down side is that housing surrounds the course and an unsightly power line runs through the layout, both of which present unwelcome visual distractions from what is a fine track with an exciting variety of green complexes; some of which are crowned (like holes 1 and 7) and others are canted from side to side (holes 2, 9 and 16) or from front to back (holes 3 and 14).

One of the best holes on the front nine is the 485-yard, par five, 3rd hole. When the facility first opened this was a brutal par four, which proved too tough for the members, so it was turned into a three-shotter. The hole sweeps elegantly to the right around tidal marshland to a long, narrow green. A favourite of many on the back nine is the 185-yard 13th where the green is protected front and left, forcing many to end up in the sand trap to the back right of the pin.