Pretty with its view of the English countryside panorama, its tree-lined fairways and water holes, this par 72 is also quite tough with all those strategically-placed bunkers, making you think twice before hitting your tee shots and/or approaches to the wide greens.
As a result, club selection will be paramount on many holes as you will find out on the right dogleg par-4 1st hole where, with a small bunker in the middle of the fairway (right in front of a river crossing it), you will have to decide if you want to land your shot short of the water or beyond, before moving on to the straight par-4 2nd, with more bunkers in the middle of the fairway and its beautiful island green.
Then, after the very long left dogleg par-5 3rd hole, with more bunkers to avoid, midway, and a green, impossible to reach on your second shot, you will walk over to the par-3 4th, with a few trees in the middle of the fairway, lengthwise, hiding the wide green, further back, before facing one of the prettiest holes with the right dogleg par-4 5th, with bunkers around the corner, midway, and a beautiful view of a wide lake and its two island greens,
Finally, after a couple of more shots over a river on the left dogleg par-4 6th and par-4 7th holes, you will head on to the tough par-3 8th, with a narrow tree-lined fairway and a slightly-downhill tee shot over the river to reach the green, before facing the tricky par-5 9th, with a fairway twisting to the left then to the right and with trees, hiding the green (in the corner), making it impossible to reach it on your second shot.
The back 9 starts with the right dogleg par-4 10th hole with, surprise, deep rough and bushes right in the middle of the fairway (near the corner) and more... bunkers leading up to the green, and continues with the par-3 11th, with a blind and uphill tee shot landing down onto a wide green.
The wide lake comes into play on the next three holes, starting with the left dogleg par-4 12th, with four bunkers in the middle (and on the left) of the fairway and water (on the right), the right dogleg par-4 13th, with two small bunkers, midway, to the left of the wide lake, and the dogleg par-4 14th, looking similar to the 13th, but with a fairway twisting right then to the left, with trees partially hiding the green, on the left.
After the par-3 15th hole, with a blind tee shot above a big mound landing downward to the green, you will need to hit tee shots over the river on the right dogleg par-5 16th (with six small bunkers surrounding the slightly-elevated green) and the dogleg par-4 17th, bending sharply to the left, before enjoying the beautiful view of the very long but straight par-5 18th, along the river on the right (with a couple of more bunkers, in the middle of the fairway), and its nice and big clubhouse behind the green.
If, indeed, this Richmond Lakes course looks visually attractive, I agree with most of the other comments regarding the numerous bunkers (66 of them !) in the middle of the fairways and around the greens. With blind tee shots on all the par-3 holes, and par-5s, with hardly any eagle opportunities, this par 72 is already challenging enough (as mentioned by jbx1612 in his course architect comments) but, thankfully, the greens are wide and smooth...

Demanding course with all those bunkers just were you wanted to place the ball..
You have to play carefully and that makes it more interesting than many other courses,
Well done (4 stars)

A real classic! A cleverly designed course to offer a real challenging round of golf. Definately a keeper.

Another really great course jbx. A real challenge avoiding bunkers and had to think about my approach shots to the greens - as it should be!
Congats on well thought out design. Keep up the good work.

another fine cours john, congratulations. i love the way u make a player work for a good score. keep up the good work

Great course loved playing this deffo a keeper .