Virginia

Virginia golf
offers history
as well as variety

HOT SPRINGS, Va. -- It's rare to find a golf destination where the significance goes much deeper than the game, or the space it occupies. Colonial Williamsburg, home of the Golden Horseshoe, is one of those places. That's not a knock on the others -- they're exceptional in themselves, and visiting them brings on a special kind of exhilaration.

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Colonial Williamsburg, however, is more than golf; it's more than land; it's more than scenery-it's time. Where else can you retrace the steps of our forefathers, relax in five-star luxury, then walk across the street to hit some golf shots on a course designed by Robert Trent Jones?

Just southwest of the nation's capital is a budding golf destination that is trying to catch Williamsburg as the golf capital of Virginia.

Prince William County is touting itself as a golf bonanza for good reason. The Virginia golf boom of the 1990s found a home here, adding several new must-play layouts. Although Prince William County will never catch Williamsburg as one of the nation's great golf destinations, its quality layouts and proximity to Washington D.C. make it a worthy, convenient stop.

Eight 18-hole golf courses - and three nine-hole layouts - dot the diverse landscape in the county. Serious players will love the courses surrounding Lake Manassas. Since opening the exclusively private and prestigious Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in 1991, two other elite public courses have sprouted up along the beautiful topography of northern Virginia's largest lake.

History and golf mix well in Prince William County, the site of several historic Civil War battles. Two of the area's must-play courses - the Stonewall Golf Club in Gainesville and the Bull Run Golf Club in Haymarket - are Civil War tributes of sorts.

Golf in America, to a certain extent, started right at the Homestead Resort in Hot Springs with country's oldest first tee. Each of the resort's three courses were designed by legendary golf architects-Donald Ross for The Old Course (with additions made by Rees Jones), William S. Flynn for The Cascades, and Robert Trent Jones for the Lower Cascades.

For a trip back to modernity, try Virginia Beach. This tourism hot spot has seen a golf boom over the last couple years highlighted by the TPC at Virginia.

Chris Coleman, TPC at Virginia General Manager/Director of Golf, explains that Virginia Beach was a natural choice for a new TPC course-because it was a largely under served market: "The Virginia Beach (and its neighboring cities) area is the largest in the country, population-wise, without a major sports team-so the people down here are hungry for pro sporting events. The PGA Tour builds these TPC courses with the idea they might host a professional tournament, as we do now with the Buy.com Tour. Combine that with Virginia Beach's natural tourist draw, you've got a huge market that up until a few years ago, was largely untapped for golf. Since that time, there've been several new tracks built (or nearly completed) in the area, including our course here. We're fast becoming known as a first-rate golf destination, and the PGA Tour recognized that."

There are Virginia golf courses that smack of newness and there are courses as old as the Declaration of Independence. Coming to Virginia not only gives golfers a variety of options, but a valuable history lesson as well.

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