My main round for the day was on the Jamestown Course at Williamsburg National Golf Club. I was here in December to check out the Yorktown Course so I didn’t want to let the remaining course here dangle out there too long!

I had plenty of time to spare for my afternoon round and made a couple stops along the way while heading over to Williamsburg. The course was extremely busy so I didn’t try to go off early and just chipped and putted some before meeting up with the starter.

And, my experience with the starter was a bit odd! He did everything he could to convince me to play Yorktown, even though I booked my round on Jamestown. He wanted me to join up with a single on Yorktown and said that it would take all day to play Jamestown. I’m sure his intentions were good, but I remained firm on my request to play Jamestown and things worked out in the end. I’ve got nothing against Yorktown – it was just my crazy desire to see a new course that had me wanting to play Jamestown so much!

Like Yorktown, Jamestown is named after the area’s colonial ties and both courses share property with similar terrain. However, that is where the similarities pretty much stop! Yorktown overseeds the fairways in the winter, has bent grass greens and was designed by Tom Clark. In comparison, Jamestown does not overseed, has bermuda greens and was a Nicklaus group design.

The front nine on Jamestown is much like you could find in many parts of the country. The course plays through some nice-looking homes (separated by trees) and crosses a couple roads. There isn’t anything too distinctive or offensive about the front nine here, just plenty of solid golf holes.

The 8th, a short par-3, is likely the best hole on the front. It tops out at 138 yards and plays over a water hazard, which actually was drained when I played. The green is shallow and if you miss long then you’ll face a tricky, downhill chip shot.

The back nine seemed to have holes that made me think more about how to play them! There is more elevation change on the back nine, a couple interesting doglegs and some strategy is needed off the tee, as things get tighter.

The 10th and the 16th are scenic par-3’s that play about a club less than the yardage. The 10th has a wetlands look to it while the 16th seems like it could be found up in the mountains somewhere.

I played the blue tees which are 71.6/127/6446. From there I think the biggest difficulty will be trying to get an iron shot onto a green for a birdie putt! I found the greens to be smaller than they looked from the fairways and with all the uneven lies I never really had the perfect club into them. The nice thing is that I was able to scramble some with more gentle breaking greens and spots where I could chip it close.

The conditions on Jamestown were very good! Everything was soft from rounds and rounds of rain and it was cart path only. Besides the softness everything was nice and worthy of the $50 green fee. The turf yielded good lies and the greens were pure, with a little trickle. In a couple more weeks the bermuda should be completely green.

I played the back nine with two regulars who told me about how much better shape the course is in these days compared to a year or two ago. The new owners have done a lot to improve the maintenance and it shows! I noticed that there was pine straw surrounding the tree bases, which offered a bit of a Carolina feel to the course. The new owners’ work has paid off with a nice result!

I liked Jamestown and think both courses here compliment each other! While Jamestown doesn’t have the flash of Yorktown’s back nine I was surprised with how playable Jamestown turned out to be. Assuming that the conditions remain good, I don’t think you can go wrong with a round on either course at Williamsburg National!

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