Sunday’s weather was just too good to pass up! It was supposed to get into the fifties without much wind. That is almost as good as it gets in Central Virginia in late December!

I planned on an afternoon round at Williamsburg National, which is one of the few public courses in the Williamsburg area that I haven’t played. That left some extra time in the morning, but with short days and potential frost delays I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get in 36 holes! So, I used the morning as a chance to check out the Spotswood Course at Golden Horseshoe Golf Club.

Golden Horseshoe is one of the top golf resorts in Virginia and the Gold Course is a personal favorite in the commonwealth! I’ve been meaning to get back to the Gold, as I’m missing a review for it! I played there before I started my site. From what was shared to me by the proshop, the Gold Course had some work done last year to spruce it up.

Anyway, Sunday was about playing the nine-hole Spotswood Course and checking that one off my list! If I’m honest though, I felt odd responding to the proshop that I was from out of town – when I wasn’t playing either of the property’s two main courses!

After a lengthy frost delay, I was the first golfer out on Spotswood. For those familiar with the Gold Course, Spotswood somewhat parallels the 16th, 17th and 18th holes there, before working its way closer to the Colonial Parkway. You actually get some good views of the Gold, including the signature 16th green!

Spotswood is a par-31 and plays 1,865 or 1,880 yards, depending on which tee boxes you play. You can play the white tees for the “front nine” and the green tees for the “back nine”. The white and green tees are within 20 yards of each other on most of the holes, except on the 1st and the 5th. The $25 green fee allows you to go around twice to try all the yardages. Because of the frost delay, I just played nine holes. However, I opted for the longer yardage on many of the holes.

Spotswood turned out to be a decent little course! It is a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design and I found it fun to play. There are six par-3’s, two par-4’s and a par-5. The par-3 yardages vary quite a bit and I hit everything from my wedges to a 3-wood! The par-4s are short and offer a chance for more short irons. What is nice is that you can hit a couple drivers, if you’d like!

The biggest difficulty on Spotswood is going to be getting the ball onto the small greens. The greens are tiny, almost temporary size and tough to hit in regulation! There are some steep drop-offs short of the 1st and 8th holes, which increase the need for accurately judged short irons. Once you are on the greens the putts will have mild breaks.

The conditions on Spotswood were pretty average. This time of year I didn’t expect pristine maintenance but with many wooded areas I could tell it has been tough to grow grass. Plus, the endless rain this year has the course saturated.

The fairways were a mix of decent lies and thin, muddy lies. What was pretty neat is that the fairways and green collars were painted! The greens had some areas in need of new turf and putts bumped around some. Hilariously, the only putt of significance I made bounced all around on its way to the bottom of the cup! If you play Spotswood I’d go in with the expectation that the conditions here won’t match the main courses at Golden Horseshoe.

I’m always thrilled to play a new course and Spotswood was no exception. I wouldn’t go too far out of your way to play Spotswood but if you are looking for a warm-up round (or a round with the family) then I’d say give it a try.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):