Taconic Golf Club

Laid out on the Williams College campus in the Berkshire Mountains, Taconic Golf Club is one of the best collegiate courses in the country. A rudimentary 9-hole course was laid out in 1896 which was extended to eighteen holes in 1928 with a par of 73, but the layout was revised in the mid-1950s and it now plays to a par of 71.

Designed by the Boston company of Stiles and Van Kleek – which was responsible for the construction of more than fifty courses between 1924 and 1932, mainly in New England – the eighteen holes here at Taconic are set in one of the most beautiful locations in the state of Massachusetts.

The front nine – short and very pretty – is where a score can be made, despite the relatively tight fairways and greens elevated above fairway level. The outward half ends in spectacular style with a downhill par three that plays to a green set in a hollow below the clubhouse.

The back nine comprises many of the holes completed by Stiles and Van Kleek with fairways laid out over higher ground and magnificent mountain backdrops for many of the tee shots A rock engraved behind the 14th tee pays tribute to a Jack Nicklaus hole in one during a practice round for the 1956 US Junior Amateur Championship which was held here.

Gil Hanse recommended a restoration project to the club in 2006 which involved the relocation of cart paths, upgrading of drainage, expansion of green sites, widening of fairways, installation of fairway bunkers and removal of a substantial number of trees throughout the property – all alterations designed to return the course to the way it was intended to play by its creators.

In the book The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles by Bob Labbance and Kevin Mendik, the authors reckon Taconic “is the most highly regarded of any course designed by Stiles and Van Kleek“ though they also contend: “not to belittle the excellent course… but there are many others designed by the firm that are just as good. Taconic has the resources to enhance and improve the condition of the course, unlike most of the other courses of the same ilk.”

Gil Hanse is also quoted in the book as saying: “the routing is perhaps the strongest feature of the design. The golf course perfectly traverses the rolling terrain and the diversity of the layout is inherent in each shot played”. The architect continues: “Taconic Golf Club has outstanding greens [and they] possess all of the bold undulations and imagination that mark greens built by classic golf course architects.”