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Tim Gavrich

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Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« on: October 01, 2009, 07:16:58 PM »
Our next tournament is a week from this coming Sunday and Monday out at Wintergreen Resort--the Stoney Creek course.  I know it's a 27-hole Rees Jones affair but am not sure which nines we'll be playing.  Their website isn't terribly descriptive and I've not found much at all from past GCA discussions.  If anyone has played it and can comment, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Cheers.

--Tim
Senior Writer, GolfPass

J Sadowsky

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #1 on: October 01, 2009, 07:45:33 PM »
I played it a few years ago, remember it being nice (great staff), but typical Rees, too many mounds.   Decent conditioning.  One really fun drop shot par 3 sticks out, the par 3s were overall the highlights.

Bill_McBride

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #2 on: October 01, 2009, 08:07:58 PM »
Our next tournament is a week from this coming Sunday and Monday out at Wintergreen Resort--the Stoney Creek course.  I know it's a 27-hole Rees Jones affair but am not sure which nines we'll be playing.  Their website isn't terribly descriptive and I've not found much at all from past GCA discussions.  If anyone has played it and can comment, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Cheers.

--Tim

When we lived in Fairfax Va my attorney / pal was a member at Wintergreen but the Stoney Creek course wasn't built until right before we moved away so only played the mountain top Maples course.  I thought Stoney Creek was a Tom Fazio design.  I rode a few holes last time we were there and it looked very solid.

Bill_McBride

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2009, 08:11:39 PM »
Hmmm, just Googled Wintergreen Stoney Creek and the club's site says it's Rees.  I wonder if it's a redo because I remember the Fazio from 1994 pretty clearly.......

Chip Gaskins

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2009, 08:26:01 PM »
I have a buddy with a house up there and go there several weekends a year.  I am pretty sure the bottom of the mt. course is a Fazio.  With that said, the course at the top of the Mt. is a true bast to play.  I think it is very underrated.  Dan Maples.  I just love it, matter of fact will be there for a golf weekend in a few weeks.  Trying to decide on a Saturday round...Cascades course (2 hours away) or Richmond course (1.5 hours away).

Bill_McBride

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2009, 09:20:51 PM »
I have a buddy with a house up there and go there several weekends a year.  I am pretty sure the bottom of the mt. course is a Fazio.  With that said, the course at the top of the Mt. is a true bast to play.  I think it is very underrated.  Dan Maples.  I just love it, matter of fact will be there for a golf weekend in a few weeks.  Trying to decide on a Saturday round...Cascades course (2 hours away) or Richmond course (1.5 hours away).

We have the same recollection of the Fazio down below.  Since their own website now says it's a Rees Jones course, I can only surmise there has been a redo along the way.

Have you teed off on the upper course in a total fog?  I did that a couple of times and it's wild!

Tim Gavrich

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #6 on: October 01, 2009, 10:50:52 PM »
Interesting the recollections of it being a Fazio course.  Perhaps it was routed by Fazio but he left the project and Rees finished things up?  I will try and get the skinny when we're there in a couple weeks (Sunday and Monday that 11th and 12th, if anyone is in the area!).
Senior Writer, GolfPass

Mike_Trenham

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #7 on: October 01, 2009, 10:55:05 PM »
This course opened arround 1998 and was always a Rees design as far as I know, I was in schoool around there at that time and never heard Fazio's name attributed to Wintergreen.

I played a lot of golf with one of the owners son's but we never made it up there to play, way too much school work and we had already paid our dues for the semesters at The University's course and could walk it for free.
Proud member of a Doak 3.

Tim Gavrich

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #8 on: October 13, 2009, 11:26:19 PM »
The W&L golf team finished in a rare three-way tie for second place at the Virginia State Intercollegiate Championship, four shots behind Randolph-Macon College.  After a mediocre first day, we shot the lowest second-day score to not completely embarass ourselves in an event we had a very good chance to win.  Anyway...

The VSGA had us playing the Shamokin and Tuckahoe nines at the 27-hole Stoney Creek facility at the foot of the mountain where the main resort is perched.  The Shamokin and Monacan nines comprise the original 18, ca. 1998.  The Tuckahoe was added a couple years ago, also designed by Rees Jones.

I have intensely mixed feelings about Wintergreen.  Being that it is a resort course, I'd say that as such, it's functional.  But for me, it is not a course I would want to go out of my way to play.  I normally don't mind the Rees Jones look (i.e. mounds up and down the holes, deep circular bunkers) since at its best it can evoke a bit of Raynor's look, but all the artificial mounds were off-putting.  Some holes had pretty grand views of the mountains, but even so, the course seemed short on "wow" factor.  The Tuckahoe nine played like a completely different golf course, with zoysia tees and fairways and new greens that were different from the Shamokin nine.  I liked the closing hole on Tuckahoe, a long par 5 that wanders off to the right, but the green is visible from the tee and the mountains provide a nice backdrop.  Bunkers are all down the right and the green has a nice amount of movement.  A pretty good hole...not too encouraging when it's the best hole out there.
Senior Writer, GolfPass

Rich Brittingham

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2009, 09:15:01 AM »
I have a buddy with a house up there and go there several weekends a year.  I am pretty sure the bottom of the mt. course is a Fazio.  With that said, the course at the top of the Mt. is a true bast to play.  I think it is very underrated.  Dan Maples.  I just love it, matter of fact will be there for a golf weekend in a few weeks.  Trying to decide on a Saturday round...Cascades course (2 hours away) or Richmond course (1.5 hours away).

We have the same recollection of the Fazio down below.  Since their own website now says it's a Rees Jones course, I can only surmise there has been a redo along the way.

Have you teed off on the upper course in a total fog?  I did that a couple of times and it's wild!

Wild is right.  These pics are up at Devil's Knob in the thick of the fog, we'd be 100 yds out and haver to yell to the gree to see if it was clear to hit our approach shots.  It was REALLY fun for about 5-6 holes, but after that the novelty wore off.  I've never played the Stoney Creek course as The Knob is so much fun, fog or not.

Greg Holland

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2009, 11:15:44 AM »
I have a buddy with a house up there and go there several weekends a year.  I am pretty sure the bottom of the mt. course is a Fazio.  With that said, the course at the top of the Mt. is a true bast to play.  I think it is very underrated.  Dan Maples.  I just love it, matter of fact will be there for a golf weekend in a few weeks.  Trying to decide on a Saturday round...Cascades course (2 hours away) or Richmond course (1.5 hours away).

I believe the Devil's Knob course on top of the mountain is an old Ellis Maples course.  I too enjoyed it very much.


Chip Gaskins

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2009, 12:10:26 PM »
Rich-

Are those foggy pictures from this year?  If so, the leaves look to be already off the trees, which would stink for my trip up there Spring Creek/Cascades/Devils Knob next weekend. I was hoping the leaves would still be on the trees!

Chip

Bill_McBride

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2009, 12:47:13 PM »
The VSGA had us playing the Shamokin and Tuckahoe nines at the 27-hole Stoney Creek facility at the foot of the mountain where the main resort is perched.  The Shamokin and Monacan nines comprise the original 18, ca. 1998.  The Tuckahoe was added a couple years ago, also designed by Rees Jones.

I haven't played Stoney Creek, but walked a good bit of it before we moved away from Northern Virginia in 1995.  It therefore had to have been built earlier than 1998, most likely in the early 1990's or late 1980's.  I am also certain, like someone above, that Tom Fazio designed the original Stoney Creek 18 holes.   Perhaps Rees Jones came in later and designed the 3rd nine and remodeled the first 18, thus earning credit for the whole course.

It's on a nice piece of property, too bad it's not too exciting.  The Devil's Knob course up above definitely exciting, a lot of up and down and some absolutely "devilish" greens.   :o

Tim Gavrich

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #13 on: October 14, 2009, 12:53:38 PM »
The VSGA had us playing the Shamokin and Tuckahoe nines at the 27-hole Stoney Creek facility at the foot of the mountain where the main resort is perched.  The Shamokin and Monacan nines comprise the original 18, ca. 1998.  The Tuckahoe was added a couple years ago, also designed by Rees Jones.

I haven't played Stoney Creek, but walked a good bit of it before we moved away from Northern Virginia in 1995.  It therefore had to have been built earlier than 1998, most likely in the early 1990's or late 1980's.  I am also certain, like someone above, that Tom Fazio designed the original Stoney Creek 18 holes.   Perhaps Rees Jones came in later and designed the 3rd nine and remodeled the first 18, thus earning credit for the whole course.

It's on a nice piece of property, too bad it's not too exciting.  The Devil's Knob course up above definitely exciting, a lot of up and down and some absolutely "devilish" greens.   :o
Bill--

That doesn't surprise me, and seems to confirm my suspicions about the muddled history of the place.  I'd be interested to know what they didn't like about Fazio's efforts there, as I can't imagine they were appreciably less strong than the Rees Jones work thet is there currently.
Senior Writer, GolfPass

Greg Holland

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #14 on: October 14, 2009, 01:02:10 PM »
When I was there, they told us Stoney Creek was Rees Jones -- and it certainly looked that way (as already described by others).

This is from Rees' website (looks like he built 18 in 1988, and 9 more in 1998):

Stoney Creek Golf Course
Wintergreen, Virginia

 
Co-designer: Keith Evans
The Stoney Creek Golf Course at Wintergreen rolls through the Virginia countryside in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Water flows into this valley from the mountains, creating natural hazards. The long par five 9th hole on the Tuckahoe Nine Course plays toward a beautiful mountain backdrop.
 
Design: 1988 1998
Resort

Awards
Golf Digest - Runner Up, Best New Resort Courses 1989

 

Rich Brittingham

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Re: Golf at Wintergreen Resort, Nellysford, VA
« Reply #15 on: October 14, 2009, 02:35:52 PM »
Rich-

Are those foggy pictures from this year?  If so, the leaves look to be already off the trees, which would stink for my trip up there Spring Creek/Cascades/Devils Knob next weekend. I was hoping the leaves would still be on the trees!

Chip

Chip,
Lucky for you that picture was last year, I think in April '08.  I'd bet the leaves up on top of the mountain will be peaking next weekend.  The greens are always running super fast in the fall up there, you'll have a blast.