Williamsburg trip review

[brownm]

Just got back ahead of Hurricane Sandy from my golf trip to Williamsburg. Played some great courses, though we did do a fair amount of driving. Here are the highlights:

 

Lodging: We stayed at the Marriott at Ford's Colony. This is a vacation villa property, available for rentals at various times throughout the year. I booked a prepay deal where a 2 bedroom condo, approx 1000 sqft, was $850 for 6 nights. Two master suites, common room, full kitchen, washer/dryer. By far the nicest place for the money we have ever booked for a golf trip. The 3rd guy on the trip had a 1 bedroom, though it was more like a traditional hotel room. Centrally located to courses in Richmond, Williamsburg, and even eastern shore of Virginia. 10 minutes to downtown Williamsburg for bars and restaurants. Highly recommend.

 

Golf:

 

Day 1: Arrived and played an afternoon round at Kiskiack. Nice layout, rolling hills on the front nine. The back nine becomes exceedingly tight, playing from cliff top to cliff top. Overall an average course for the trip, but fun. greens were in poor shape. Buoyed by the fact that my friend had a hole in one on the 5th hole, quite a start to the trip! $30 afternoon rate.

 

Day 2: Played 36 holes on the Gold Course at Golden Horseshoe. This was $125 for an all day rate, which is why we didn't head over to the Green course. Old school RTJ Sr. course, heavy bunkering by the greens, and exacting off the tees. Some really great holes, especially #2. Par 3's were difficult but fun. I really liked it, though tempered a bit by cart path only due to overseeding. Greens were still slick though.

 

Day 3: 2 of us made our way to Richmond and played Kinloch Golf Club. My club in Myrtle Beach arranged the unaccompanied guest play, and WOW was it worth it! $300 plus caddy fee, but this was the nicest course I have ever, and may ever, play. Conditioning was superb, only way I can explain it is that the fairways reminded me of walking across the pedestrian crossings at the Masters. Fast greens, lots of interesting contours. Extremely fun course, with 5 holes having split fairways off the tees. Immense practice area, great clubhouse and facilities, first class all the way. If this is #46 on the Top 100, I can only imagine what the other private courses ahead of it are like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4: Played 36 holes at Bay Creek Golf Club in Cape Charles, VA. 1our 45 min drive from Williamsburg - a little further than we would typically go. Howver, this 36 hole course was worth it. In the middle of nowhere, but a beautiful setting on the water. There was an interesting mix of Florida type holes, seaside golf, and even some holes reminiscent of Pacific Dunes to my eye. Even though the design was varied, it felt like it flowed. The Nicklaus course as a slight favorite, mainly due to the seaside holes. Palmer course was extremely fun as well though, and my advice would be to make sure and play bot. $150 total for 36 holes.

 

Day 5: Viniterra Golf Club. OK Rees Jones design, kind of plain compared to Kinloch and Bay Creek. Open driving areas, par 3s were nice but all very similar look. Didn't help that it was misting and the greens hadn't been cut. No real clubhouse, just a trailer. May develop into something better, will try it again next time and see if it has improved. $60.

 

Day 6: Last day was a combination of Royal New Kent in the morning and Stonehouse in the afternoon. I will preface this with the fac t that we were all Mike Strantz fans, having played True Blue and Caledonia in Myrtle Beach a ton, as well as Tot Hill Farm, Bulls Bay, and Tobacco Road. RNK was typical Strantz, quirky, fun, unconventional, and at times unfair. But that is what we like - you get rewarded just as often with an unexpected opening to the fairway as you get penalized with a bunker that you couldn't see or a hidden pin. Course was in pretty good condition, especially the green. Again, cart path only was BRUTAL on this course but we still made it around in 4hr 15 min. Stonehouse was the course everyone on WRX tried to tell me to dump from the lineup. It was toward the bottom of the list, but was a good last round to complete the "Strantz" day. Much easier than RNK, with less typical Strantz craziness. I would play it again, but RNK was much better in my opinion. $120 for both courses.

 

Food:

Best of the bunch was the Dog Street Pub. British pub, a ton of beers, great British pub food and Indian food. Ate there twice.

Blue Talon Cafe was a nicer restaurant, great food and service. More of the sit down, relax, and enjoy a good meal. A nice change from the bar scene.

Green Leafe Cafe downtown was a typical college bar, 100 beers on tap, average bar food. Went there on a Monday for half price burgers and football.

Oceans & Ale and Second Street Bistro were average at best, wouldn't go back.

Peirce's Pit BBQ was highly recommended, and living in the south I can't pass up BBQ. Very good, and cheap. Don't skip dessert.

 

That's it. Weather was great ahead of the storm. Only thing I would change is going 2 weeks earlier to avoid overseeding and cart path only.

 

Mike

[Johnny Biarritz]

Heck of a trip you had. I too would have played 36 at the Gold rather than going over to the Green at Golden Horseshoe. The Gold is a really top notch place.

Good that you played Stonehouse. That's 7 of the Strantz courses; he only did 9 total. Royal New Kent was the Strantz extreme and the only course he's ever had ranked in the Top 100; not counting Monterey Peninsula which is a semi-renovation. RNK is a very good course.

Viniterra should get better over time. It is a housing development course and assuming they can make it through the next 2-4 years without ending up in bankruptcy, they should be in really, really good shape.I hear decent things about the course, even though most golf guys I hang out with are Rees Jones haters.

You caught a bad break with the cart-path only.