GreatHoles
by DAVID PARTRIDGE
T
he VSGA has fashioned a superb lineup of golf
courses for its 2019 competition schedule, and your
association encourages players of all ages, genders
and skill levels to participate in its events this year.
Please visit vsga.org and click the PLAY dropdown
to find the tournaments that interest you. With more than 200
championships and One-Day Events on the lineup this year, you
are sure to find something you will enjoy playing in.
One of the great courses on the schedule this year is Full Cry at
Keswick Golf Club—located just outside Charlottesville—which
will host the VSGA Amateur Championship in late June. This
part of Virginia is horse country, and typically where you find
horses, you find fox chases. Merriam-Webster defines full cry as
an “eager chase—using hounds that have caught the scent and
give tongue together.” Fox hounds are raised and trained very
near the course, so it is not uncommon for golfers and guests
of Keswick Hall to enjoy the bucolic scene of hounds and riders
gathering in the morning, before the chase begins.
Keswick Golf Club dates back to 1949, however, Full Cry did
not achieve its full glory until Pete Dye was brought in to rede-
sign the course that opened in 2014. Set against a backdrop of
the distant Blue Ridge Mountains and aided by the beauty of this
charming part of Virginia, Dye created an outstanding course
that together with Keswick Hall will be both a superb venue
and a challenging test for the state’s finest amateurs. Keswick
hosted three of the four season-ending VSGA Four-Ball Match
Play Championships, and players have overwhelmingly praised
Full Cry.
Over a career that has spanned seven decades, Dye created
some of the world’s great courses (e.g. TPC Sawgrass, Harbor
Town, The Golf Club, the Honors Course, to name but just a few)
14
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 9
and his designs often
include stout par 3s
like the island green
at the 17th on the Sta-
YARDAGES
dium Players Course,
the 17th at Whistling
Straits, and the 5th
Tournament
Virginia Tee:
at Teeth of the Dog -
Tee:
119 yards
Casa de Campo in the
206 yards
Dominican Repub-
Monticello
lic. True to his her-
Dye Tee:
Tee:
174 yards
110 yards
itage, Dye laid out a
strong set of par 3s at
Keswick Tee:
Full Cry—including
155 yards
the demanding 4th
hole—that has anoth-
er Dye trademark, a
series of pot bunkers on the left, designed to create deception
and draw the player’s eye to the right.
At 206 yards from the Tournament Tee, the 4th requires a
strong, accurate long iron to reach the green. Played against a
backdrop of beautiful trees, the deep putting surface contains a
series of undulations that sustain both a wide variety of playing
conditions as well as a multitude of excellent hole locations.
The challenging 4th at Full Cry is truly a great golf hole and one
where par is always an excellent score.
PAR 3
A five-time VSGA Player of the Year and a multi-time winner of
the VSGA Amateur, Mid-Amateur and Senior Amateur, David
Partridge is the author of this series. David lives in the Richmond
area and works as a mortgage banker.
vsga.org
No. 4
KESWICK GOLF CLUB