Virginia On Deck — Five Rounds, Three Days, One Weekend

Five rounds. Three days. Three resorts. One chance to play my way through four decades of American golf course architecture in a single weekend.

The weekend of April 24–26 I’m heading to Virginia to play:

• Golden Horseshoe — Gold Course (Robert Trent Jones Sr., 1963)
• Golden Horseshoe — Green Course (Rees Jones, 1991)
• Kingsmill Resort — River Course (Pete Dye, 1975)
• Kingsmill Resort — Plantation Course (Arnold Palmer & Ed Seay, 1986)
• Royal New Kent (Mike Strantz, 1996)

Williamsburg is the hub — Colonial Williamsburg Resort and Kingsmill are both there. Royal New Kent is a short drive west in Providence Forge. Five rounds in three days sounds like a lot because it is. I’m already thinking about what goes in the bag, what stays in the room, and how much the body is going to hate me by Sunday evening.

Why These Courses

I don’t pick trips by convenience. I pick them by story. Every course on this list has a reason to be on the list.

Golden Horseshoe Gold is the headliner. RTJ Sr. at his most strategic — a course carved into rolling Tidewater forest with his trademark punishments for average misses and rewards for committed shots. It’s been on the “play before I die” list for years.

Green Course is the unsung sibling — Rees Jones taking his father’s property and adding his own voice a generation later. Back-to-back father/son on the same day is an architectural conversation I want to hear.

Kingsmill River is a Tour venue. Pete Dye at the beginning of his Virginia era, with the signature railroad ties, pot bunkers, and James River views on the closing holes that made this a regular PGA and LPGA stop. You don’t get to play what Lydia Ko has played all that often.

Kingsmill Plantation is the change-up — Palmer/Seay instead of Dye. A different philosophy on the same property. When I can play two contrasting designers in one resort in one day, I’m going to do it.

Royal New Kent is the wild card. Mike Strantz’s links-inspired design hidden in the Virginia woods — no flat lies, blind shots everywhere, and a reputation for being equal parts beautiful and brutal. Strantz died young and only built a handful of courses. Each one is a pilgrimage.

The Plan

I’m not expecting low scores. I’m expecting experience.

Physical: 90 holes in 72 hours is no joke, especially on walking-unfriendly layouts. I’m stretching every night, hydrating obsessively, and putting a small recovery kit in the bag.

Mental: I’ve been bad about letting bad front nines wreck back nines. With this many rounds stacked up, there’s no time for a hangover round. Every round gets its own reset.

Tactical: Tee selection matters. I’m playing these from tees that let me compete on approach, not survive off the tee. The ego doesn’t score points.

The camera: I’ll be filming more than usual. These are courses worth sharing in detail — for anyone considering the trip, for future me when I want to remember what the sixth at the Gold actually looked like.

What I’ll Be Tracking

• Strokes gained on approach across five very different course styles
• How my swing holds up on back-to-back days (this is the real test for the Stack System work I’ve been doing)
• Whether the short game I’ve rebuilt this spring actually travels

The performance page will update as rounds come in. Posts will follow each day.

If you’re in the Williamsburg area the weekend of the 24th, say hi. If you’ve played any of these courses and have beta worth passing along, the DMs are open.

Let’s go.