Published October 2026
Plenty of Richmond-area buyers want a golf course nearby without a golf membership attached to the purchase. The two are easy to confuse, because most of the well-known golf neighborhoods around here pair homes with a private club. This guide goes the other way: it starts with the courses that sell rounds to anyone, then names the neighborhoods close to them. No dataset tracks homes near public courses, so we use proxies you can check yourself: the course address, what the course says about itself, and driving distance.
Public play and club membership are two different things
A public or daily-fee course sells you a round. You book a tee time, pay that day, and leave. A club asks for a membership, usually with an initiation fee, monthly dues or both, and some clubs make the membership a condition of living in the neighborhood. Many courses do both at once. Hunting Hawk Golf Club in Glen Allen takes tee-time bookings while also listing separate pricing for club members, and Birkdale Golf Club in Chesterfield describes itself as public and private golf, with a member-only booking link next to its public one.
That split matters when you buy. A home beside a public course carries no club obligation unless the neighborhood documents say otherwise, and that is worth confirming on the resale certificate. Our guide to which Richmond golf club costs are mandatory and how to verify them walks through the paperwork, and our broader ranking of Richmond golf course neighborhoods covers the membership-based communities. For homes that do come with a club, browse our golf course homes in Richmond page.
Which courses are open to the public, checked October 2026
We read each course’s own website for this list. Course operations change, so confirm with the course before you plan around it.
Belmont Golf Course, Lakeside
Belmont sits at 1600 Hilliard Road in Lakeside. Henrico County says it bought the course in 1977 to offer affordable golf to the public and recommended leasing it to The First Tee of Greater Richmond, which would run it as a public course. The First Tee’s Belmont pricing page now lists walking and riding green fees for 12-hole rounds, twilight rounds and a six-hole par-3 course called Little Bell, with discounts for juniors, seniors, military and first responders. It also gives member guests a discount, so Belmont has a membership side as well.
Hunting Hawk Golf Club, Glen Allen
Hunting Hawk’s website gives the address as 15201 Ashland Road, Glen Allen, VA 23059, with an 18-hole course, a driving range and online tee-time booking. Its tournament pricing separates a player rate from a lower club-member rate, which tells you non-members play here too. The site does not use the word public, so call the pro shop if the distinction matters to your plans.
Birkdale Golf Club, Chesterfield
Birkdale’s page on Acumen Golf puts the course at 8511 Royal Birkdale Drive, Chesterfield, VA 23832 and describes a Dan Maples design that opened in 1990. It offers public tee times and a separate member-only booking path, with membership dues listed as an option rather than a requirement for a round.
Courses we left off, and why
The Crossings Golf Club in Glen Allen is not a place to book a round right now. Its site describes a full redevelopment with a target opening of Fall 2027, so it is not on the list of open courses. Mill Quarter Plantation Golf Club in Powhatan was reported by Richmond BizSense to be closing for good on November 4, 2026, so we are not listing it as an open course; if you live near it or want to, our post covers what the reported closure means for Powhatan neighbors.
Want a saved search near one of these courses?
Pick the areas on this page that fit your drive to the first tee, and we will set up a saved search limited to those areas so new listings reach you as they come on the market. There is nothing to sign and no club to join.
Lakeside: the closest homes to Belmont
Lakeside is the neighborhood Henrico itself names as Belmont’s home, and driving routing puts the center of Lakeside under a mile from the course, about 0.9 miles. Distances in this guide are driving distances from the course to the central point OpenStreetMap assigns each area, measured in October 2026, so a specific street will differ.
Wrong for: anyone who wants a full championship 18 holes. Belmont is a 12-hole layout plus a short course, according to its own pricing page.
Laurel: a short drive to Belmont
Laurel is about 3.6 miles by road from Belmont and roughly an 8-minute drive in the same routing. It is the next step out if Lakeside is not what you are looking for.
Wrong for: a buyer who wants to carry clubs from the front door. At this distance the course is a drive, not a walk.
Wyndham: near Belmont, with its own club arrangement
Wyndham is about 5.2 miles from Belmont by road, in roughly 12 minutes. Wyndham has a golf club of its own, and its homeowners association is a separate thing; our post on what the Wyndham association and the club each cover explains the split.
Wrong for: a buyer expecting that Wyndham golf is public golf. Treat Belmont as your public option and confirm any club terms before an offer.
Tuckahoe: a longer drive, more central
Tuckahoe is about 5.9 miles from Belmont by road, around 13 minutes.
Wrong for: someone ranking by closeness to a course. Lakeside and Laurel are nearer.
Glen Allen: Hunting Hawk’s home address
Hunting Hawk’s own address is in Glen Allen, on Ashland Road, so anything described by that mailing address is the starting point. We could not find a routing anchor for the course in map data, so we give no mileage here; check the specific street against the address above on a map before you commit. The Crossings, also in Glen Allen, is closed for redevelopment, so Glen Allen is a one-course answer for now.
Wrong for: a buyer who wants a choice of public courses close at hand. Only Hunting Hawk is operating on our verified list.
Woodlake: closest of the Chesterfield picks to Birkdale
Woodlake is about 3.9 miles from Birkdale by road, around 9 minutes.
Wrong for: a buyer who would be bothered that Birkdale runs a membership program alongside public play. If that matters, read the details on the course’s page first.
Chesterfield: the community around the Birkdale address
Birkdale’s address is in Chesterfield County at the 23832 ZIP code, and our Chesterfield community page is the right starting point for that corner of the county. If you were hoping for Midlothian, note that the center of Midlothian is about 10 miles from Birkdale by road, so it is a stretch to call it nearby.
Wrong for: a buyer who wants a course within a few minutes of Midlothian’s shops and restaurants.
How to choose among them
We grouped the picks by course, closest first, not by quality, because we have no data that ranks them. Start with the drive you will actually make: put the course address in a map, then your candidate streets. Then check the neighborhood’s documents for any club obligation, using the resale certificate our guide on what Virginia’s resale certificate must tell you describes. When you are ready to see homes in the areas above, our buyer process and mortgage calculator pages will help you plan.
Turn this list into a saved search
Pick the areas on this page that fit your drive to the first tee, and we will set up a saved search limited to those areas so new listings reach you as they come on the market. There is nothing to sign and no club to join.
Frequently asked questions
What does daily-fee mean?
It means you pay for each round when you play. There is no initiation fee and no monthly dues unless you choose to join, though a course can offer both options at the same time.
Will living next to a public course raise or lower my home’s value?
We do not publish a figure because we have no data for these specific areas. To check a street yourself, compare recently closed sales on and off the course in the multiple listing service and weigh them by age, size and condition.
Can a public course close or change hands?
Yes. The Crossings in Glen Allen is being redeveloped with a target opening of Fall 2027, and Mill Quarter in Powhatan was reported to be closing in November 2026. Confirm a course is operating before it drives your decision.
Is there a homeowners association fee tied to the course?
Sometimes. Read the neighborhood documents and the resale certificate for any golf or club obligation, and compare it with the dues a club would charge, covered in our guide linked above.
What are the downsides of a home on a golf course?
Stray balls, maintenance noise and course hours are the usual ones. Hunting Hawk’s site lists its range as closed Tuesday mornings for maintenance, and Belmont’s pricing page lists a Sunday early range close and a Monday late range opening for maintenance.
What if I want a course that comes with a club?
Look at our golf course homes page and the guide to Richmond golf course neighborhoods, which cover the membership-based communities.
How were the driving distances measured?
We used OpenStreetMap routing in October 2026 from the course to the central point OpenStreetMap assigns each area. They are rough, so check your own route before relying on them.
Which courses are not on the list?
The Crossings and Mill Quarter, for the reasons given above, plus private clubs that do not sell rounds to the public.
