WILLIAMSBURG — The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation plans to build a 9-hole, par-3 golf course on the former Spotswood property.
The news was first reported on Thursday by the Virginia Gazette, and confirmed to WYDaily by CWF on Friday. According to the report, the new course, to be called “The Shoe,” is slated to open in 2025.
The nine-hole Spotswood Course at Colonial Williamsburg, part of the Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, closed at the end of 2022. The Robert Trent Jones-designed course, an update of the original 1947 Williamsburg Inn course and once called the “best short nine-hole course in the country” by “Golf Magazine,” was underutilized and had become a strain on the Foundation’s ability to deliver its core educational mission, it said at the time.
Plans to rezone the property for residential housing were met with stiff opposition from the community, and those plans were later withdrawn by developer Frye Properties last June.
“Our revised plans for the Spotswood property were developed in response to the Foundation’s continued work with community stakeholders to determine the best uses for the Spotswood property,” Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Public Relations Manager Ellen Peltz said in an email to WYDaily. “We appreciate the concerns voiced by community members last year about the potential development of the site — traffic, green space and the number of possible buildings, in particular. As a result, we will dedicate one-third of the property on the east side of England Street to a new 9-hole, par-3 golf course.”
According to CWF, plans for the remainder of the property are still under consideration.
“We continue to weigh options for the remainder of the site. Thoughtful evaluation of the best use of the Foundation’s assets is essential to strengthening the financial underpinnings of the Foundation and maximizes our ability to share a complete and inclusive story of America’s founding with the world,” Peltz said.
