Courses

Cap Cana (Punta Espada)

Typically my golf travels are wrapped up each year by early to mid-November. Once the cold weather hits I usually hunker down and stay home for a few months to relax and unwind from the vagabond existence I tend to lead during golf season. I thought this would be the case for 2012 but just as I was putting my golf travel bag into storage for a few months I got an email from my friend Hans who loves to tempt me with opportunities to play great golf. Upon reading his email I found that Hans was up to his usual antics and this time he was enticing me with a trip to the Dominican Republic for a little golf excursion disguised as a couples trip.

Sage Valley Golf Club

I first visited Sage Valley back in early 2008 at which point I had played less than 10 courses on my Top 100 Quest. I absolutely loved the course and the profile I put up from that visit can been seen by clicking here. I was excited to play the course again to see if my feelings would hold up after having visited roughly 80 courses that are currently on the Top 100 or have been in recent years.

The Greenbrier Sporting Club (Snead Course)

This year my buddy Jay, who has been on many of my Top 100 adventures with me, turned 40 and wanted to make a little celebratory trip. What started out as a guys golf trip to Scotland evolved into a golf/sightseeing trip to Ireland with the ladies, then changed to a week in Napa without golf, and finally landed on a weekend at The Greenbrier Resort with one round of golf. I suppose that’s the way it goes when trying to please a large group.

The Greenbrier has come under new ownership in the last few years and the resort has experienced a bit of a rebirth. Among other upgrades to the facilities, there is a new casino built underground that has received a significant amount of press.

Robert Trent Jones Golf Club

To many who follow the PGA Tour, Robert Trent Jones Golf Club is synonymous with The President’s Cup. During the first 11 years of The President’s Cup’ s existence this biennial event was held at RTJGC four times, including the inaugural event in 1994.

For those not familiar with The President’s Cup, it is an event with great similarities to the Ryder Cup matches between the United States and Europe.

Princess Anne Country Club

This fall one of the guys I play golf with in Richmond arranged the use of his in-laws house in Virginia Beach for a weekend so that a group of us could go down and play a few of days to play golf. A couple of guys going on the trip spend summers at Virginia Beach and are members at Princess Anne Country Club so we decided that the best plan would be to play there since it would be the easiest and most convenient. We arrived Friday afternoon and dropped our stuff off at the house before heading over to the course to tee it up.

Rolling Green Golf Club

Opened for play in 1926, Rolling Green Golf Club came into existence when a group of members at Springhaven Country Club decided to create a club that was dedicated expressly to the playing of golf and would not feature any of the frills associated with a traditional “country club”. Design and construction of the course began in 1925 by the renowned Philadelphia firm Flynn & Toomey. By this time golf course architect William Flynn had developed quite a resume of golf courses and was widely considered to be one of the best course designers of the day. The club was an instant success and the membership roster was completely filled in less than a year after the club opened!

Westchester Country Club (West Course)

Location: Rye, NY Architect: Walter Travis Year: 1922 August 17, 2012 The West Course at Westchester Country Club is best known for hosting an annual PGA Tour event between the years of 1967 and 2007. When the event, now known as The Barclays, became part of the season ending FedEx Cup playoffs the powers that be decided the location would be a rotating one. 2007 was the last year that Westchester Country Club hosted the tournament and as far as I know there are no plans in the immediate future for the event to return. As I mentioned in

Westchester Country Club (South Course)

In 2009 I started a little tournament with three of my friends that we call the Fred Ridley Cup. It’s pretty ridiculous how seriously we take it, but there’s a trophy and a lot of bragging rights at stake so no one really wants to lose. In 2009 through 2011 we held the 72 hole Ryder Cup inspired tournament at my club in Virginia, but in 2012 we decided to take the show on the road and visit Westchester Country Club in Rye, NY. My very good friend Jay, who I have often mentioned on this site is a member there and would be our host.

Westchester Country Club was the vision of John McEntee Bowman. Mr. Bowman was a Canadian who came to New York as a 17 year old kid and used his entrepreneurial skills to become wildly successful in the hotel business. As the founding president of the Biltmore hotel group, one of the largest and most luxurious hotel chains in the world at the beginning of the 20th century, Mr. Bowman intended for Westchester Country Club to be his flagship hotel project.

The Club at Viniterra

Most of the time when I play golf in Richmond I play at the club where I belong. I am of the mindset that I should play there as often as possible since I’m already paying for it. Fortunately, the courses at my club are pretty good and I really like playing them so there’s not many other places I would rather play. That said, there is a new course that opened in 2009 that I had been hearing good things about and that I wanted to check out. The Club at Viniterra in New Kent, Virginia had been getting rave reviews from all of my friends who had been there recently.

One of my long time friends is a relatively new to golf and decided to join Viniterra at the beginning of the 2012 season.