Author: Chris Hartig

19 Reasons to Golf Williamsburg This Fall!

19 Reasons to Golf Williamsburg This Fall!

19 Reasons Williamsburg is the perfect place for your fall golf trip!

1. Affordable Condo Accommodations – Why would we start here? It’s about the golf isn’t it? Yes it is about the golf! BUT its’ also about the Historic Powhatan resortother stuff too and Williamsburg has several great condo options including two, three and four bedroom units with full kitchen, large living rooms and centrally located to area courses.  These are a great place to hang out, kind of like the Frat house but a lot nicer and a lot quieter because most of us now fall asleep by 10:00 regardless of how late we think we are going to stay up.  Except for that guy or two in every group, but they do keep it entertaining!

2. Great local dining and things to do after golf – Ok, so 15 years ago this wasn’t a very strong statement.  I know, I live here! But today there are a lot of very good restaurants including very good steakhouses like Opus 9, great local cuisine at Merchants square with Blue Talon, Fat Canary, and the Trellis all award-winning restaurants in a very unique setting, historic Colonial Williamsburg!  Want the casual place with great food and cool hang out?  We’ve got those now too!  The Newtown area has several including Paul’s Deli, Cogans, Center Street Grill and Corner Pocket.

3. Course conditions – Williamsburg’s’ Golf courses are Bermuda tees and fairways meaning they are in their best condition after summer growing season. Wait until late September and greens have all healed from fall aerification  plus superintendents don’t have to protect them from the heat so they cut them and roll them more often which means they are smooth and fast!

4. Weather – We definitely have all four seasons in Williamsburg with winters being on the mild side and summers a little on the hot side. Spring is great but can be somewhat up and down with one day 80 degrees and the next 65 degrees, but fall temperatures are very consistent after late September and through early November.  This is also, generally one of our dryer periods.  Temperatures range from high 70’s in late September to mid 60’s in early November.

5. Thru 19. – Finally the Golf!   Williamsburg has 15 championship courses including two of the east coasts top golf resorts Kingsmill and Golden Horseshoe.  Hosts of numerous PGA, LPGA and USGA events.  Two very unique Mike Strantz designs,  Traditions at Stonehouse and Traditions at Royal New Kent Golf Club and several facilities with multiple courses on site making it convenient to play two different courses in the same day.

Kingsmill Golf Packages including the River CourseThere are a lot of great promotions to choose from including trips with free lunch and beer and free replays, visit Virginia Golf Vacations Williamsburg Golf Packages page to learn more and request a quote. Virginia Golf Vacations will get back to you with a trip price in less than 24 hours!

Virginia Golf Vacations can make all of the arrangements and also accommodate individual billing so the group leader does not have to worry about collecting payment from the golfers.  Take 60 seconds and fill out a quote, you wont be disappointed Virginia Golf Vacations makes group leaders look good!

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Welcome to the “Trip Captain’s Log”

Welcome to the “Trip Captain’s Log”

Trip Captain’s Log

Welcome to the Trip Captain’s log our hope is this blog becomes a source of information for our group leaders. We plan to include tips for booking golf trips and insights about our golf destinations and other things that go a little deeper than the standard marketing you find on websites, golf brochures and advertorials. Please let us know if you have any questions and we will do our best to answer them. So here goes…

Golf Date 03-08-16: When do Virginia Golf Courses reach peak conditions and what is the best time to play in the spring?

The weather is starting to break in southern Virginia, temperatures for the next week expect to be above 70 degrees each day hitting the 80’s at least once. Nighttime lows should stay above 50 degrees. This means soil temperatures will rise and the bent grass found on 95% of the greens in southern Virginia will begin to grow at a very high rate. This is the weather that the bent grass greens prefer. Most courses aerify in late February and early March to clear organic material and prime the greens for their optimal growing season. By the third week of March most greens are healed from spring aerfication.

While a large majority of greens are bent grass almost all of the fairways are Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass requires higher soil temperature than bent grass and will not begin to “come in” or awake from their dormant state until mid-April and not be consistent and in good condition until mid to late May. Some are as late as June and this depends a lot on how much a course fertilizers how good a base they started with, weather and a lot of other factors. Several of the premium courses over seed their fairways with cool weather grasses so golfers can play off green grass in the spring.

So when is the best time to plan your sprig golf trip to Virginia? Well, It depends on what you want. If you want courses in their premium conditions, temperatures consistently in the mid 70’s then Late May is the best time to plan your spring golf trip to Virginia. But the courses will also be charging their highest rates during that time frame as well.

Prices start low in March and generally increase each month through the spring at both the golf courses and the hotels. There are nice value ads in early spring like free replays, lunch, etc. to entice golfers. If you want a lot of extras and you want to keep the price down but don’t mind that the fairways will be mostly brown and weather could be 50 degrees one day then 70 degrees the next then March is the time for you. If you want optimal playing conditions and perfect weather and don’t mind paying a little more, then late May is the best time for you. April is the busiest month, with the last 2 weekends in April typically being the busiest. Hotels are still using shoulder season rates and while most courses are passing on their higher rates at that time many courses are still providing nice value ads as well.

Please let us know your thoughts and if you have any questions you would like us to answer about golf in Virginia or booking golf trips for you and your golf buddies.

Chris Hartig PGA