August 2026 – The Mountain Course at Spruce Peak is part of the Stowe resort and is a private club you can access if you are a resort guest. This is as mountainy as mountain golf gets and playing mountain courses has emerged as a trend for my 2026 golf year – and I have yet to play Banff and the neighboring courses (which I’m scheduled for in a week from this post).
While maintaining a mountain course is really tough, Spruce Peak is as well maintained as any course over any terrain. It ranks #2 in the state for me behind only Quechee’s Highland course and right in front of CCVT. It is extreme, and while not lengthy by any means (we played the blue/white tees which measure just 5,600 yards), it is tough and a great place to shed some excess ball weight from your golf bag. In fact from the Blue/Whites, the course slopes to a ridiculous 144!
Like Sanctuary in Colorado, this course will never get any top 100 or even top 200 love from the golf raters as it is too extreme to fit neatly into their definition of a classic (or neoclassic) links-type course. And while Sanctuary at least has gotten some best in state love from Golf Digest, they don’t even give that to Spruce Peak. What do they all know anyway. I like it!
I played Spruce Peak as part of our six-course smorgasbord of mountain golf in Northern New England for my nephew’s 21st birthday. I describe that trip a little in my Baker Hill post. I also talk about the Stowe area in my Stowe Country Club review. We did hit a great restaurant in Waterbury, VT on this trip that you should try though: The Hen of the Woods. Really good. So with no need to blather on about all that and since I’m holding off on political posting and talking about Dr. Fauci’s (Falsey’s) Congressional hearing testimony (if you can call it that)…
Had to add that. Anyway, since I don’t have all that to discuss here, I figured I would rank my favorite course of all the various course types. According to Google AI:
Golf courses are generally grouped by their natural landscape and design style. The primary landscape types include links (coastal and windy), parkland (lush and tree-lined), heathland (sandy with heather), sandbelt (firm inland sand), desert (arid and rocky), and mountain (sloped with high elevation). To those, I would add planned residential community, converted farmland links, cliff-side oceanfront, middle-of-nowhere links/sandbelt-like American, and defies categorization. So my faves for each:
- Links: St. Andrew’s. The first is the best. Runners-up would include Royal County Down, Royal Troon, and Royal Portrush. I would say links courses are my favorite so it’s hard to just mention those as I have so many faves. Worst links course? Man it would be really hard to fuck up a true links course so I’ll go with a links course in name: The Links at Brigantine (NJ). And even Brigantine is not God-awful.
- Parkland: The top – of what I would define as – Parkland-style course would be Oakmont. Pine Valley is in a different category in my book. Merion is kind of a hybrid but I would include it here and call it Parkland. Shoal Creek would be another runner-up here. The worst? Herein lies so many clunkers but I would say Horsham Valley (we called it Horseshit Valley and is now closed) and John F. Byrne in Philly.
- Heathland: My trip to London to watch the Eagles play in 2018 and check off some true Heathland golf courses was derailed so I have yet to play a true Heathland course but this is where I would include Pine Valley and it would be my favorite. I really haven’t played anything close to another Heathland course to add runners-up or losers.
- Sandbelt: Of course by Sandbelt they actually mean Royal Melbourne and it would be my favorite. I think the American Sandbelt courses are in a different category so again there’re no runners-up or losers here.
- American “Middle-of-Nowhere” Sandbelt: This is the recent craze which was kind of started by Sand Hills in Nebraska. Now you have a ton of these popping up in every remote outpost from central Washington state to Hobe Sound and central FL. Not ever playing Sand Hills, I would say Ohoopee Match Club would be my fave. Runners-up: High Grove and Streamsong (Blue). Worst: McCullough’s Emerald Golf Links (NJ) but that’s really more links but we’ll put it here. Mind you, it’s not all that bad either.
- Desert: Desert Mountain would be a subcategory but included here. Estancia (just played this year) would be my favorite. Desert Forest and We-ko-pa Saguaro are runners-up and Desert losers are Camelback: Padre course (mind you before re-do) and Foothills (Both in AZ).
- Mountain: My guess is Banff will take the top spot if I was doing this in two weeks but for now it’s Forest Highlands: Canyon course. Kind of a stretch to say this Flagstaff gem is a true mountain course but here’s where I put it. The Wilderness Club (MT) and Baker Hill (kind of) in New Hampshire are runners-up. Sand Springs in Drums, PA or Sugarloaf also in PA would be losers.
- Planned Residential Community: This is my least favorite style of course and it’s much easier to pick my losers. So, kind of stretching the definition a bit (as I’m not sure the homes were pre-planned as part of the course) but Bel-Air in CA would be my favorite. I think Black Diamond Ranch would fit here and would be a runner-up as well as Golden Ocala. Lot of losers to pick from here but we called Flying Hills in Reading, PA, “Flying Glass” as the homes were so close and private course-wise Blue Bell is a nice course jammed into a residential community. There are worse publics though.
- Converted Farmland Links: Not quite American Sandbelt or Parkland, these inland links courses are rural with fewer trees than traditional Parkland and more trees than American Sandbelt. Maybe Crooked Stick falls into this category. If so, number one. But definitely Erin Hills does so I will call it the winner. Lost Rail is the runner-up and is the exact course I was thinking of in creating this category. Latona (a NJ 9-holer) is the worst bar none in this category and probably the lowest ranked course I’ve ever played. Even my dad called this a cow pasture. Blackfoot in Idaho was also bad and kind of in this category.
- Cliff-side Oceanfront: Kind of hard to call Cape Kidnappers and Pebble Beach links so I have them as co-favorites of this category. With a setting like this, not even I could screw up a course design so bad as to make a cliff-side oceanfront course a clunker.
- Defies Categorization: I had to add this category because where the hell else would I put Shadow Creek. It is a manufactured Oasis. I’d add Liberty National and the Black Desert Resort in Utah as runners-up in Category Defying golf courses. Harborside International: Port Course in Chicago also defies categorization, but in a bad way.
Okay that was fun. To the course.
Up, down and around the mountain. Spruce Peak is an adventure in golf and just a lot of fun for a course that you’re likely to lose a half dozen or more golf balls. The amenities are nice. We had some drinks at a pretty casual bar/main clubhouse dining room. Lockers were more reminiscent of a public course than a private club. They have a driving net instead of range. We were hosted here by Tim who we played with on Stowe and definitely want to get him down to Philly to reciprocate.
Loved the casual vibe here and the course was in pristine shape. Since I’ve blathered on about enough here, I will only give light descriptions of the holes. If you want more, check out the course You Tube page.
Hole one – par five. So if you’re hungover, nervous or a short hitter, to the right is a hole in the earth you want to avoid at all costs. Nope I didn’t. Plunk right in and a duck hook into the fescue on my breakfast ball.
Looking back to the tee box on one.
From the first green looking out at three and beyond that five.
Hole two – par three. A long and tight par three looking back toward the main Stowe mountain.
Hole three – par four. Not overly long but this is from the beginning of the fairway and as you see if you don’t get it to the crest of the hill on your drive, you’ll have a blind approach. My third consecutive double to start off the round.
Hole five – par four. Shame I missed four, would par and here is five. Again you need to crest the hill on your drive to get a visual to the green on your approach. I would and would par again. Green is tough – it’s a little peninsula green that gives you nowhere to miss.
Hole six – par three. There was no way I wasn’t going in the water here.
Hole seven – par four. Another blind drive that requires you to crest the hill. I would put it in the fescue to the right there but it was easily findable and would get my approach on the green for a nice juicy three putt bogey.
Hole eight – par five. Bender to the right and if you try to play to safe around the mound there you will be dropping four. Like moi!
Hole nine – par four. Intimidating looking drive but if you can carry the water and not hook it, it’s not bad and sets you up for a short iron and a tap in par for me.
Hole ten – par four. Short but I didn’t show the drive over the crap you need to hit. I hit it in and could only pop up a couple shots from there before going in my pocket.
Hole eleven – par five. Downhill par five and a great golf hole now looking at the Spruce Peak side of the resort. Tough landing spot for your second shot but landed on clear earth and was able to bogey despite skulling my nine on my third shot.
Hole twelve – par four. Nice par four that leads you right to the chairlift base on Spruce Peak. Another bogey.
Hole thirteen – par three. Almost hit the luckiest of any holes-in-one ever. Way left with a five wood off the tee but bounced off the hill twice and onto green and kept rolling toward the hole stopping at about three feet.
Hole fourteen – par four. Crazy hole but one of my favorites. Right is death. I took my drive to the top of the hill just safely on the right fairway then a nice approach shot for another par. The main top photo was from the top of the fairway on this hole.
Here’s the approach from the left side of the fairway on fourteen.
And fourteen from my drive.
Hole fifteen – par four. A super intimidating drive up this hill and sure as hell I put it right into the side of the mountain.
The approach on fifteen.
Hole sixteen – par three. Nice downhill short par three. Bogey.
Hole seventeen – par four. Short par four and this is the approach to a tough green.
Hole eighteen – par five. Great finisher. You try to hit as far down the hill toward the dogleg as possible and then have the below approach.
And the approach on eighteen once you get through the dogleg.
In all, a top 200 club IMO and certainly one of my favorite mountain courses. Worth the stay to get on or try to get on through Thousand Greens or a call from your pro.
Golf Scrapbook 