Take Your Game to Historic Colonial Williamsburg

Follow the LPGA Tour to Kingsmill Resort

Chris Duthie | Photos © By Chris Duthie

There’s no denying the remarkable pleasures of returning to tried-and-true favorites, which is what the LPGA Tour will do in just a few weeks when it heads east to Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.

Williamsburg’s singular splendors—golf, festivals, winemaking, top-ranked theme parks, boutique shopping, antiquing—pair with a “living” history that dates back four centuries.

While retracing the steps of Captain John Smith, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson offers intrigue, die-hard golfers relish the collection of area courses that bear such historic names as Pete Dye, Robert Trent Jones Sr., Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Michael Strantz and Dan Maples.

At the 2,900-acre Kingsmill Resort, golfers pit their skills against the Dye-designed River Course, site of the LPGA Tour’s upcoming Kingsmill Championship. Another 18-hole layout also tempts resort guests—the Palmer-crafted Plantation Course—but special connections will gain access to Kingsmill’s private and highly formidable Woods Course, co-designed by Tom Clark and Kingsmill resident Curtis Strange.

Don’t miss Golden Horseshoe’s twin championship courses, which are regarded as Williamsburg’s preeminent challenges. The Gold Course is a Robert Trent Jones masterpiece carved from an arboretum of fruit trees and hardwoods adjacent the equally timeless Williamsburg Inn. Jones’ prodigiously talented son Rees penned the Green, which shares a verdant landscape of forested gullies, ravines and ponds that, like the Gold, fiercely resists scoring.

Also inviting public play is stylish Ford’s Colony Country Club and its 54-holes of semi-private, Maples-designed golf; brutish but stunning Tradition Golf Club at Stonehouse (Strantz); meticulously groomed Kiskiack Golf Club (John LaFoy); and Williamsburg National's two 18-hole layouts (Nicklaus and Tom Clark).

(Travel Tip: Kingsmill Resort guests can reserve free daily clubhouse tickets to the LPGA event, plus score complimentary on-site parking and access to resort amenities like the River pool complex, fitness center, tennis and spa. For information call 800-832-5665 or go online to www.kingsmill.com.)

For more information: 800-368-6511 or www.VisitWilliamsburg.com.

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Chris Duthie is a contributor to Colorado AvidGolfer, the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.