Country Club of Vermont
Played Country Club of Vermont in 2014 around 4th of July weekend. Was up at Sugarbush with my brother and cousins Gary and Gwen and was able to arrange to get on here. This is a super well-conditioned club with very distinct front and back nines. The front plays almost linksy through a gently rolling meadow (unlike most Vermont courses I’ve played) but the back is traditional mountain golf with more dramatic elevation changes and in a more wooded setting. It was quiet, there are no homes on the course and while the slope from the blues doesn’t look too tough, I remembered playing like poo here, found the card and can confirm I really did play like poo (a club-breaking, contemplate quitting 100)!
I used to ski when I was young and we had a house in Vermont so came up here a lot. My brother and most of the family still skis but since the bride and girls never got into it, I gave it up years and years ago. So my brother has a house right on Sugarbush which has a separate North mountain that used to be called Glen Ellen. That’s where we all learned to ski. I mentioned in other reviews how my Uncle Bob taught us all to ski by bribing us with blackberry brandy. He would say if we got to a certain point on the slope we could stop and have a nip. My dad saw how we would deplete his supply of brandy so he always packed a flask of peach brandy knowing we all hated it. Smart man – he also always kept a keg of Schmidt’s beer knowing we wouldn’t touch the shit.
Anyway, so his house in Sugarbush always brings back great memories. Besides the two mountains for skiing, Sugarbush has an underrated RTJ golf course with a great down-to-earth clubhouse and great people. Summer is off season here so if you want a very different golf trip, this part of Vermont is pretty good and it won’t break the bank. Obviously if you can get on CCVT then do it. Sugarbush is public. Then heading down toward Killington you have Rutland (which says it’s private but I was able to get on by just calling), Green Mountain National is good down in that area, Killington has a golf course, though I’ve never played and on the way from Sugarbush is White River GC which I also have never played. Warren is a great little town and love the Pitcher Inn for eats. Localfolk Smokehouse in Waitsfield is also a great spot for ribs and beers and the Sugarbush clubhouse is a lot of fun with a great outdoor patio.
If you’re doing this, come up during Fourth of July and go to the Warren town parade. This is about as opposite as you can get from the Mummers parade in Philly or the Rose Bowl parade. Locals just dress up their tractors or pick up trucks with signs and shout crap about the government while walking down the street. Other folks just put on any outfit they find and walk around. We swear this one dude was so high he didn’t even know he was in a parade but was walking down the street in a loin cloth twirling a baton. We swear he pulled a wake and bake and his buddies threw him into the parade (photo below).
To the course. So as I said CCVT starts out in a rolling meadow. It’s pretty open but there is wispy fescue beyond the rough. The first eases you into the round – just 375 from the blues with no real trouble. The second is a 414 yard beast and the number one handicap and three comes back the other way – a short par five with trees up the left. It shouldn’t be tough but at this point I just shot double craps (two sevens in a row). The rest of the front meanders back and forth across the meadow and nine is a tough, long par five running back up the hill toward the clubhouse – and it was the only hole on the front I parred.
The back is what you would expect from a Vermont course. There are more elevation changes and the holes are now in the woods so any sprayed drive is in the trees and ain’t coming out. Ten is a funky, short par four where you can try to clear a pond with a good drive but the reward for doing so (for an average golfer it’s an easy clear if you pound the ball 275+) is not worth the risk. A nice four iron to the left puts you in the fairway and gives you a nice clean look into the green. Beyond ten it really tightens up. Eleven is a great tree-lined par three (182 from the blues), seventeen is the shortest par four on the course – a 287 yarder and finally my only other par of the day. Eighteen (pictured above) is a beast back up hill toward the clubhouse. CCVT is always on the Golf Digest Best-in-State for Vermont – currently number two.
Golf Scrapbook 