Nearing 100 years old, the Cascades Course at the Omni Homestead Resort in Virginia was the jumping-off point for Sam Snead’s Hall of Fame career in golf, as Slammin’ Sammy took the job as golf professional there in 1934.
The course in Hot Springs, built by William S. Flynn and opened in 1923, is considered by many to be one of the best mountain courses in the United States. With its setting in the Allegheny range, the Cascades ranks No. 1 in Virginia on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts.
Golfweek ranks courses by compiling the average ratings – on a points basis of 1 to 10 – of its more than 750 raters to create several industry-leading lists of courses. That includes the popular Best Courses You Can Play list for courses that allow non-member tee times. These generally are defined as layouts accessible to resort guests or regular daily-fee players.
The Cascades also ranks No. 26 in the entire United States on Golfweek’s Best list of resort courses and No. 98 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S. built before 1960.
Primland’s Highland Course in Virginia (Courtesy of Primland)
Primland’s Highland Course in Meadows of Dan ranks No. 2 in Virginia on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list. Designed by Donald Steel and opened in 2006, the immaculate Highland layout also ranks No. 27 on Golfweek’s Best Resort list and No. 106 among all modern courses built in or after 1960 in the U.S.
No. 3 among Virginia’s public-access courses is Golden Horseshoe’s Gold Course in Williamsburg, which was designed by the father/son combo of Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Rees Jones. The layout is No. 43 among U.S. resort layouts and No. 177 among modern courses in the U.S.
The next two courses on the Best You Can Play list for Virginia were both built by Pete Dye. The No. 4 spot goes to Keswick Hall’s Full Cry in Keswick, which is No. 49 among U.S. resorts and No. 193 among modern courses for the U.S. No. 5 is the Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech in Radford, which also ranks No. 9 on Golfweek’s Best Campus Courses list in the U.S.
The Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech (Courtesy of Virginia Tech)
Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Virginia
1. Omni Homestead Resort (Cascades)
Hot Springs (No. 98 c)
2. Primland (Highland)
Meadows of Dan (No. 106 m)
3. Golden Horseshoe (Gold)
Williamsburg (No. 177 m)
4. Keswick Hall and GC (Full Cry)
Keswick (No. 193 m)
5. Pete Dye River Course of Virginia Tech
Radford (m)
6. Independence
Midlothian (m)
7. Riverfront GC at Harbour View
Suffolk (m)
8. Kingsmill (River)
Williamsburg (m)
9. Bay Creek (Palmer)
Cape Charles (m)
10. Bay Creek (Nicklaus)
Cape Charles (m)
11. Laurel Hill
Lorton (m)
12. The Club at Viniterra
New Kent (m)
13. Potomac Shores GC
Potomac Shores (m)
14. University of Virginia GC (Birdwood)
Charlottesville (m)
15. Raspberry Falls Golf & Hunt Club
Leesburg (m)
Golfweek’s Best Private Courses in Virginia
1. Kinloch
Richmond (No. 28 m)
2. Olde Farm
Bristol (No. 55 m)
3. Robert Trent Jones GC
Lake Manassas (No. 61 m)
4. The Virginian and Nicewonder Farm & Vineyards
Bristol (m)
5. Ballyhack
Roanoke (m)
(m): modern; (c): classic
Golfweek’s Best Campus Courses
The rankings below reflect where these courses fall among the top 30 Campus Courses in the United States.
T-30.* University of Virginia GC (Birdwood), 5.61
Charlottesville, Va.; Lindsay Ervin, Davis Love III, 1984
Golfweek’s Best
- Top 100 Best Courses You Can Play
- Best Courses You Can Play, state by state
- Top 200 Modern Courses
- Top 200 Classic Courses
- Best Private Courses, state by state
- Top 30 Campus Courses
- Top 50 Casino Courses
How we rate them
The members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged together to produce a final rating for each course. Then each course is ranked against other courses in its state, or nationally, to produce the final rankings.