Experience golf at the oldest extant public golf course in Vermont and stay at the Woodstock Inn & Resort.

Captain Israel Richardson originally built the first iteration of the Woodstock Inn & Resort in the wake of the American Revolution. He specifically constructed a rustic, two-story, wooden structure that he initially called “Richardson’s Tavern.” Designed with the popular Federalist-style architecture of the age, it sat right in the middle of Woodstock, But golf at the Woodstock Inn & Resort dates to 1895, when a guest persuaded the general manager to build a golf course. Today, surrounded by the lush Kedron Valley and stunning views of Mount Peg, the golf course at the Woodstock Country Club is a picturesque venue set amidst an unspoiled Vermont landscape. The course boasts a par-70 layout that offers an unforgettable experience for golfers of all abilities. (The Woodstock Inn and Resort was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2016.)

At the end of the 19th century, the inn built a nine-hole golf course after a guest lamented his inability to play a round or two on-site. (He had specifically carried his golf clubs all the way north from his native Boston.) Developed within a matter of months, the resort’s new course was an immediate hit among contemporary travelers. But despite its popularity, the course’s location was eventually abandoned in favor of a new one in 1906. Ownership subsequently selected a new spot beneath Mount Peg in the Kedron Valley and began constructing the second course shortly thereafter. Originally designed by William Henry Tucker, the inn’s new course was one of the first public golf courses in Vermont. Tucker himself was an English golf professional, who had worked as a club maker, head professional, and winning championship player before going into the golf course construction business.

Other golf course designers installed additional features to the course over the following decades: For instance, Wayne Stiles expanded the course near Woodstock Inn & Resort to 18 holes in 1925. Then during the early 1960s, Robert Trent Jones Sr. thoroughly redesigned the course per the direction of the inn’s new owner, Laurence S. Rockefeller. Rockefeller and his wife, Woodstock-native Mary French, enjoyed Jones’ work so much that the two played regularly on the course together. (Jones also designed historic mid-century courses at Rockefeller’s Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and Colonial Williamsburg Resort around the same time.) Today, surrounded by the lush Kedron Valley and featuring stunning views of Mount Peg, the Woodstock, Vermont golf course is a picturesque venue set amidst an unspoiled Vermont landscape. The course boasts a par-70 layout that offers an unforgettable experience for golfers of all abilities.

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