By Len Ziehm
Historic Williamsburg, Virginia, was hit hard by the recession, which negatively impacted its golf business. Williamsburg got back in revival mode and is now offering great golf for travelers.
Royal New Kent was a smash hit, when it opened in 1997. Golf Digest named this Mike Strantz design its Best New Course and it was also on the magazine’s America’s Top 100 list. As prestigious as that is, the course had to be closed for eight months after a series of ownership changes. Its Grand Re-opening was on May 6 of this year, after a $2 million rehab. 
The Club at Viniterra, a Rees Jones design, who has long been one of the world’s most respected course architects. During the bleak years Viniterra stayed alive by providing affordable greens fees. A new clubhouse and $66 green fees, low for a Rees Jones design, will keep golfers coming back for more.
Williamsburg National is a 36-hole facility that sits closest to all the area’s colonial attractions. The Jamestown course, a Jack Nicklaus design, was closed for over a year, while its companion, the Yorktown course remained open.
Chris Hartig was a long-time club professional and Director of Golf at Kingsmill, which has hosted 37 pro tour events, most recently the LPGA’s Pure Silk Championship in May. Hartig’s Carlton Hospitality and Management company is overseeing the rehab at Williamsburg National.
“In Williamsburg there’s been a commitment to golf for a long time,’’ said Hartig. “In the 1990s they started expanding, and that led to an overbuilding situation. Recession hit, and courses started changing hands.’’
Michael Strantz was one of the world’s hottest designers in the mid-1990s. Not only did Strantz design Royal New Kent, but he also is responsible for Caledonia and True Blue in South Carolina, Tobacco Road in North Carolina, Lake Nona in Florida and Monterey Peninsula’s South course in California. The run of great courses stopped when Strantz, only 50 years old, succumbed to cancer in 2005, but these courses assure his legacy in golf lives on.
In Royal New Kent, Strantz imagined an Irish-style links course patterned after Royal County Down and Ballybunion. Over 100 bunkers, several blind shots and elevation changes give the course a distinctive and unique look.
At Williamsburg National a greens renovation was needed to get the Jamestown course up and running again. The course was seeded with Champion Bermuda, which ensured top playing conditions.
Yorktown was designed by Tom Clark, who doesn’t have the world-wide reputation of Nicklaus but has long been a popular architect in the Mid-Atlantic region. The fairways on Yorktown were over-seeded to offer green fairways in the winter.
Williamsburg has survived the lean times and now with new ownerships in place, renovated courses and a welcoming atmosphere for golfers, they are the place to take your golf buddies this year.
