Golf Courses in the Williamsburg Virginia Area

I have enjoyed every golfing trip to Williamsburg since I started going in the fall of 2008. Through my latest trip in October 2012 I have played 40 rounds on 16 different courses so I have a sense as to what courses are available and some idea of pricing, course conditions, etc.

To help facilitate the process of planning out a trip I put together a spreadsheet of courses in the Williamsburg area. With the Williamsburg Plantation as the starting point I used mapping programs to determine mileage to the different courses and sorted the list using travel time.  I used course websites to get the Yardage, Par and Slope from the furthest set of tees and added the course phone number and website address for easy reference in the future. In most cases the courses have posted their rack rate and I have recorded these when available. 

The screen shot I have included below is a part of the spreadsheet model. I have a total of 41 courses that I am tracking; the furthest about 72 miles from the Williamsburg Plantation.

• Within a 55 mile radius and drive time of less than 65 minutes there are 34 courses; two being 9-hole courses and one that has 27 holes that I count as two. 

• Average slope of these courses is 129 and average yardage 6,635 from the furthest tees. Three of the courses are incredibly challenging with slopes of 147 and five of the courses are geared to those that prefer an easier test with slopes of 116 or less  

•  Of the 16 courses I have played so far all have been within 30 miles and a travel time of 35 minutes or less.

The posted rates were for the most part updated in early October 2012 but the reader is cautioned that these can change seasonally as well as annually; for instance many courses offer cheaper winter rates.

I built the spreadsheet to help me keep track of the golfing options available in the Williamsburg area. I have links to the course websites within the model that allow easy access when updating the information each year. I also keep tabs on any deals at these courses for future reference. Since I have turned 60 I pay attention to senior rates; most of the local courses offer senior discounts but not much if any is offered at the resort courses. Generally I find that weekend golf is more expensive and Fridays are sometimes at a premium to Monday through Thursday. Some of the courses offer different rates for different tee times during the day.  These can be twilight rates (tw on the spreadsheet) or mid-day rates usually from 11 am until twilight rates kick-in. 

If you are a Virginia resident some of the courses offer a special resident rate and if you are in the military there are also discounts available. I fully support the latter but I am totally against the former - here or anywhere else; on principle I tend to avoid courses that offer them unless I get a discount that is equivalent to the resident rate.

I would like to believe that doing some homework and knowing what is available can pay off in getting great value for our golfing dollar. On our latest trip in October 2012 I proved that to myself.

We played six rounds of golf with a cart and the total rack price for those rounds was $359.50 US (just under $60 per round) + tax; our actual cost was $166 US ( $27.66 per round) + tax.