Bay Creek: Palmer Course

Cape Charles, VA • Private

Panelists

Overview

The 7,250-yard Arnold Palmer-designed course at Bay Creek is located on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, featuring exquisite topography and expansive views of the Chesapeake Bay and Old Plantation Creek. The adjacent Jack Nicklaus course is now just nine holes but well worth playing. The Palmer course, currently ranked 20th in Golf Digest’s Best in State rankings, was in America’s 100 Greatest Public courses in 2003.

About

Holes 18

Length 7250

Slope 142

Facility Type Private

Designer Arnold Palmer

Panelists

Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists

3.8

100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE SCORES

Shot Options

6.7506

Character

6.9821

Challenge

6.6679

Layout Variety

6.8734

Fun

6.8945

Aesthetics

7.0493

Conditioning

6.9025

Reviews

1 / 6

Review

“Love the visuals of the bunkers down to the water. Just enough risk/reward to keep it interesting for the better player. A very enjoyable layout."

2024

2 / 6

Review

“The Palmer course at Bay Creek in Cape Charles, VA is a delight to play, and the seclusion of the locale is part of the delight. The interior of the course is beautiful, with ponds and marshes, a large variety of flowering plants, numerous shorebirds, and some great views of the Chesapeake Bay from among the sand dunes. The golf provides a mix of wide open fairways and greens to tight, challenging layups and some tough forced carries into what is usually a strong, prevailing headwind. After surviving the tough opening holes along the beach into the wind, you get a respite with some wide open, downwind holes and a chance to recoup your round. After some nice holes before and after the turn, the ending kind of fizzles until you get to 18, which is a somewhat inexplicable par 5 with a layup followed by a “cape” approach shot to a green dangling close to the water. You may need to play this hole a few times to figure it out, as it’s not at all obvious from the tee."

2023

3 / 6

Review

“The Palmer course at Bay Creek Resort has a variety of short, intermediate, and long Par 3s, 4s and 5s leaving one to use a multitude of shots throughout your round. Even though you can feel a strong breeze off of the Chesapeake Bay throughout your round, each hole has its own distinctive characteristics. The round starts off by taking you directly to the Bay before turning inward into a more tree lined back nine. You will be faced with different wind directions, as the routing does a nice job of changing directions throughout your round."

2022

4 / 6

Review

“Palmer has crafted a challenging design nestled in between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The combination of beach shell lined cart paths, stone wall banked greens (#3 "

2020

5 / 6

Review

“Like the sister Nicklaus course, great playing environment and in decent shape despite recent weather. Not in quite as good a shape as the Nicklaus course but it’s a little less penal and usually more fun to play."

2018

6 / 6