GreatHoles
HOLE NO.
18
Farmington Country Club
By Lauren Greenlief
Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville has deep historical roots in Virginia golf and culture. It also has strong connections to the VSGA and amateur golf, having hosted 24 VSGA championships. The challenging 18th hole has been the site of many exciting finishes and the centerpiece of stories going back nearly a century.
BACKSTORY
Farmington Country Club’ s golf course opened in 1929. Designed by Fred Findlay, it traverses rolling hills with views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Crowds of spectators often gather near the 18th green, which offers a vantage point to watch the action unfolding there, as well as play on the 13th green and 14th tee.
One of the most notable finishes was at the 1961 Virginia Women’ s Amateur, featuring a matchup between two Farmington members and Virgina Golf Hall of Famers. Robbye King Unger, 17 at the time, was playing in her first VSGA Women’ s Amateur Championship and drew Mary Patton Janssen in the first round of match play.
After the front nine, Robbye held a 4-up lead over the fourtime champion. Mary Patton played great on the back nine, narrowing Robbye ' s lead to 1-up heading to the 18th. There, Mary Patton sank a put of more than 50 feet to extend the match, which she won in extra holes.
OUTSTANDING FEATURE
In 2024, Scott Kinnan( Farmington’ s Director of Green and Grounds) and his team made enhancements to the 18th hole. Among those: trees were removed from the left side of the right-to-left dogleg hole and four new fairway bunkers were added. This created additional risk-reward, allowing players to try to play down the left side of the hole for a shorter approach. Fine fescue was planted on the left side of the hole to catch drives that go too far left. Around the green, the right greenside bunker was removed and replaced with a grass swale to catch balls that roll off the green, but it leaves a tricky chip shot. A few years ago, a new back tee was added to stretch the already difficult hole to 430 yards.
FARMINGTON COUNTRY CLUB
14 V IRGINIA G OLFER | J ULY / A UGUST 2025