Birdwood - Virginia - USA

Jeffry nominated the Birdwood Golf Couse as a GEM and it was added to the Top 100 website on January 3rd 2011. Jeffry’s comments are as follows: “The University of Virginia’s golf course, Birdwood has been recognized as one of the top collegiate courses in America and hosts the highly ranked UVa men and women’s golf teams. Its 500-acre setting offers a variety of terrain in the foothills on the Blue Ridge Mountains.”

Set within a hilly 570-acre property that was purchased by the University of Virginia in 1974, the Birdwood course was unveiled to the golfing world by Maryland-based architect Lindsay Ervin a decade later.

Now owned and operated by the Boar’s Head Resort, Birdwood is still home to both the men’s and women’s golf teams from the University of Virginia, but a far greater number of ordinary fee paying golfers are now able to appreciate the undoubted charms of such a fine course.

Highlight holes on the card include short par fours at holes 3 and 6 on the front nine but the undoubted star of the show is the 158-yard 14th, which plays to an island green. This hole precedes a very tough (par 5-4-5-4) finish, where the stroke index (of 9) at the 15th gets progressively lower as each of the remaining holes are played.