Dogwood Hills Golf Course — Local services in Donegal Township

Arnold Palmer was quoted as saying if you can play golf well in Western, PA you can play well any where. I doubt he ever played Dogwood Hills, but if you can play well here despite its short length you can play well any where.

The course is a bit quirky, especially on the front nine with lots of twists, turns, uphill, downhill, and sidehill lies. If you just want to grip and rip it, this may not be the course for you. If you want to test your creativity with hitting a fade, then a draw, a knock down shot due to wind on top of the hills or 1/2 and 1/4 wedge shots than this is the course for you.

The course itself was in good not great condition. There is not one sand bunker on the course. The greens were in very good shape and rolled well with the fringe around the greens very lush on most holes. The greens and surrounds were in much better shape here than much more expensive courses in the area like recent rounds at the 1781 and Hickory Heights golf clubs. The fairways were dried out in some areas, but I have not played a course in the Tri-State area that did not have some dry or even dead fairways the past month due to lack of rain. My one complaint would be the tee boxes. They definitely needed cut and cleaned up with numerous broken tees. Another suggestion would be to add a couple of ball cleaners at a few of the tee boxes. There is not one on the entire course.

The service and friendliness of the owner and pro shop attendant was outstanding. The attendant went over a few quick tips on some of the holes before I teed off, and walked to my car after the round to retrieve the cart so I would not have to take it back down the hill to the shop.

Dogwood Hills is a great place for a casual/fun round of golf! I wish 4.5 stars...

I had not golfed in decades, and this is the place I started again.

Dogwood Hills makes it affordable to play! Will is an incredibly nice person. This course makes golfing fun. Players can wear jeans and sneakers or golf attire and golf shoes. I like it that the other players I have encountered on the course have been friendly too. I have not had any encounters with bad attitudes at all, and I am certainly not a good golfer . . . yet.

This is, in my opinion, the best place to take a new player—even someone who has never played before. There is no stress, and the quietness of the area helps too. I pause during play to just enjoy the scenery and feel the sun on my face and feel the breeze that flows up and down the hills and valleys of the course.

I think this course is great for beginners because one does not feel out of place for not having expensive clubs or all the cool golf clothes. Plus, players get plenty of experience practicing hits on some interesting lies, especially if you miss a fairway here and there as I tend to do. I think even Tiger Woods might have to really bring his game if he missed the fairway on a few of the holes at Dogwood Hills in Claysville! I go with an experienced player, and he has taken a Mulligan on occasion. Me? Well, I should just change my last name to Mulligan!

Anyway, I like finding hidden gems as this golf course is to me. I go out with an old set of clubs that were given to me by a friend to this course where I can actually afford to play at. Now that I am at the end of my review, I wish I could go golf there today!

(Note: That's not me in the picture. It's just a nice pic I caught at sunset at the...

So I'm going to assume that everyone that has come to this course and gave it a 5 star or a 4 star rating is not an avid golfer. Let me explain...

First. Let me say that the greens are awesome. I liked everything about them the way that ball ran, stopping ability on high shots, and putting was actually a challenge ( which if it was easy everyone, blah, blah)... So on that alone that's worth five stars but, that's not all that goes into a course.

Second. Here's where it gets tricky, some people like short courses some people like the longer but this course gives you no option, it is short.

Third. Yes, we are in Western Pennsylvania so hills will be involved and ball control and placement a must. But... You really couldn't tell where the fairways were or how they were laid out. It's the same kind of grass you got in your backyard, and not much of a fairway cut.

Fourth. It would probably be a decent course for new golfers or young children to learn ball control. I golf 2 or 3 times a week all summer even winter sometimes and this course was only fun on the greens everything else about it was a struggle.

With that said I shot a 34 on the front a 38 on the back and 69 is par. Drove three greens, and got to both par-fives in 2.

Again these people that rated this course can talk about how the owners are awesome and they probably are and the greens I agree with a hundred percent are great but it's hard for me to put out there that this is a great course when there are so many other great options in Western Pennsylvania. If you're going for price, yes this is a...