In addition to teeming with
championship golf at courses such
as the Golden Horseshoe, the area
offers visitors an authentic taste of
the nation’s beginnings.
GOLDEN HORSESHOE GOLF CLUB; INSET: COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG FOUNDATION
Colonial Williamsburg, Va.
T
The best golf vacation in
history? Journey back in time
to the 1700s, when Williamsburg
was a political beehive and the center of
Britain’s largest New World colony. Local
tip: Book lodgings at the Williamsburg
Inn, a lovely edifice of white-washed brick
set within the historic area of Colonial
Williamsburg. Its nearly 500 reconstructed
or restored buildings are populated by
costumed interpreters and craftspeople.
Everyone from wigmakers and blacksmiths
to milliners and coopers ply their trade
and reenact or describe aspects of colonial
life along the cobbled streets of this living,
working town. The 18th-century time warp
is truly convincing.
Adjoining the Williamsburg Inn is
the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, its
Gold Course a masterful Robert Trent
w w w. v s g a . o r g
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GOLF IN THE SHADOW OF HISTORY
Jones design set in an arboretum of fruit
trees and hardwoods cleaved by ravines and
dotted with ponds. The compact course,
which celebrated its 50th anniversary last
year, is known for its sterling collection of
par 3s, each of which brings water into play.
The club’s Green Course, a newer Rees Jones
design, is a grand-scale test carved from a
virgin parcel of beech, oak and pine trees
that once belonged to a colonial plantation.
Also recommended is the ’Shoe’s nine-hole,
walker-friendly Spotswood Golf Course, a
scaled-down version of the Gold Course
known for its slippery pedestal greens.
Another Williamsburg mainstay is
Kingsmill Resort, with its three courses
woven through rolling hills, hardwood
forests and coastal terrain along the
James River. The River Course, a former
PGA T
our site which now hosts the best of
the LPGA T
our’s Kingsmill Championship,
is a beguiling Pete Dye design that relies
on perched greens, yawning ravines and
four ponds for its challenge. The scenic
back nine is highlighted by the dazzling
par-3 17th, which parallels the James River
from tee to green.
Kingsmill’s Woods Course, a Tom
Clark-Curtis Strange collaboration carved
from towering beech and oak trees, is a
well-balanced test with minimal rough that
runs along ridge tops and wraps around
ravines. Among the feature holes is the
par-5 13th, its green guarded by a lake
that doubles as the Rhine River attraction
in nearby Busch Gardens.
The resort’s Plantation Course, an
Arnold Palmer-Ed Seay design, is a short,
sporty layout set in a residential development.
It brings water into play at eight holes
and swings near landmarks attached
to Richard Kingsmill’s 1736 plantation.
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