When you think of golfing destinations across the U.S., it’s likely Florida, Arizona, and other Sun Belt locales are the first to come to mind. But closer to home, Virginia is quickly becoming a must-see golf capital.
After hosting the Solheim Cup and the first U.S. victory in the cross-Atlantic women’s matchplay event since 2017 this past September, courses across the commonwealth are drawing a lot of attention, also correlating with an uptick in more people playing the game of golf.
In 2020, the National Golf Foundation counted 24.8 million people that played some form of golf across the country. By 2023, that number had nearly doubled to 45 million. The total includes 6.3 million Americans aged 18-34, the largest demographic, and a record 3.4 million golfers playing on a course for the first time.
Virginia’s tourism department now puts out a golf directory, and the course on its cover is one of those places seeing the sport’s boom — Keswick Hall, a short drive from the Beltway in Charlottesville. And the director of its Full Cry Golf Course, Rob McNamara, knows the ins and outs of the golf world probably like no one else in the state.
A winner of 75 tournaments, he is a former U.S. Open qualifier at the age of 16 (1983), PGA Middle Atlantic Professional of the Year (2018), Golf Digest’s Teacher of the Year in Virginia (2000), a three time All-American and SEC Freshman and Player of the Year at LSU (1984-1987) and a member of the Kentucky Golf Hall of Fame.
On this episode of The Washington Times’ District of Sports, McNamara joins the program to discuss the trends he’s seeing in the world of golf and in Virginia in his role as General Manager and Director of Golf at Keswick, a position he’s held since 2021 after 24 previous years as the head PGA professional at Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville. He also shares some unique insights and entertaining stories from his playing days and a life spent around the game.
“It’s cool. It’s in movies. It’s in television. It’s, you know, Golf has sort of changed. And any athlete will tell you, it’s the hardest sport you play. So they go and play, and they draw more attention [to the sport],” McNamara said. “From a pure math point of view, some places might see 100% growth in rounds of golf in the last five years. That is probably not uncommon. We are right-sizing our activity here at Keswick Hall with Full Cry … but we’ve seen a big uptick.”
The original Keswick course was a Fred Findlay design that opened in 1949. Arnold Palmer was brought in to upgrade the layout in the early 1990s, and Pete Dye gave the course its most recent refresh in 2014 — one of the last he worked on before his 2020 passing.
Dye and his wife, Alice, essentially redesigned the entire track, moving tons of earth, lengthening the course, and coming up with innovative reuses of materials, including breaking up the existing concrete cart paths to serve as retaining wall material and the use of an old rail car as a bridge to the tee at No. 17.
Offering five different tee boxes that provide course lengths between 4,809 and 7,134 yards, the course features sweeping views of the surrounding Piedmont and Blue Ridge Mountains, is playable for golfers of all abilities and remains open all year. It’s been honored as a Golf Digest top 20 course in Virginia since the redesign and recently landed on Golf Magazine’s list of “Top 100 Courses You Can Play” for 2024-25.
“We have added a lot of railroad ties and some planks and stuff,” McNamara said, “to also give it even more of the Pete Dye texture that I think he’s known for.”
Following the conversation with Rob, Keswick Hall’s General Manager Louis Shapazian joins the show to discuss some of the resort’s additional offerings. Shapazian joined the resort this fall after two previous decades of expertise nationwide in the luxury hospitality industry.
“I am completely enamored with this part of the country. The mountains, the hillsides, this beautiful country culb that we are a part of — Full Cry — and the Hall itself is just incredible,” Shapazian said. “The people, they’re so welcoming, and there’s just so much to offer from this area.”
Once the Dyes completed the revamp of Full Cry, the entire property underwent its own refresh. Originally built in 1912 as a private home, updates in recent years have included the addition of a new wing that nearly doubled the amount of guest rooms, a renovated horizon pool heated year-round, a 14,000 square foot on-site spa and chef Jean-George Vongerichten’s Marigold restaurant overlooking the 18th hole.
The property also boasts some historic tennis ties. Seven courts, including two new hybrid clay courts that can play in any weather, adorn the grounds, where tennis has been played since the late 1960s — when Richmond native and three-time Grand Slam champion Arthur Ashe, a cofounder of Washington’s D.C. Open, helped christen the grounds with an exhibition match.
More information about Full Cry and everything else at Keswick is available here and on social media. And you can find District of Sports wherever you get your podcasts, just search ’District of Sports’ on your favorite podcast platform.
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