Kingsmill Resort

Forty years of tour golf on the banks of the James.

Kingsmill sits on a bend of the James River a few miles south-east of Colonial Williamsburg, on land that was Richard Kingsmill’s plantation in the 1700s. Anheuser-Busch built the resort from the 1970s, and its River Course became one of the longest-running tour stops in America: the PGA Tour came every year from 1981 to 2002, and the LPGA from 2003 until 2021. Today the River and Plantation courses are open to resort guests and members, with rates published openly, which makes budgeting simple.

Kingsmill Resort green fees and tee times.

Kingsmill states plainly that golfers must be resort guests or members of The Club at Kingsmill to play its courses; there is no public rate. Once your stay is booked, request a tee time through the online form at kingsmill.com/request-tee-time or call the golf shop on 757.253.3906. No advance booking window is published, so request times when you book the room. The Stay and Play package bundles a night’s room with one round per adult per night on the River or Plantation Course, plus cart, range balls and breakfast, and is valid to 31 December 2026; confirm tee-time availability with resort reservations on (888) 731-2041 before you pay. The third course, the Woods, is for full golf members only.

The courses at Kingsmill Resort.

River Course (par 71, 6,831 yards)

The tour course. Pete Dye kept the design understated and, in the resort’s words, tinkered with it just enough to bring out the subtle details. It hosted the PGA Tour from 1981 to 2002 and the LPGA from 2003 to 2009 and again from 2012 to 2021, with no event in 2020. Kingsmill describes it as bordered by the river, and that is where the round is decided.

Plantation Course (par 72, 6,432 yards)

An Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay design with generous landing areas, large rolling greens and water on eight holes. Landmarks from the 1736 plantation are kept within the layout. The 15th, at 566 yards, is the true three-shot par five, and the 17th is a par three played over a broad marsh. It is the cheaper round and the better choice for mixed abilities.

The round, in perspective.

Pete Dye designed the River Course, which opened with the resort in the mid-1970s and was revised in 2004. It is a par 71 of 6,831 yards from the back tees, which GolfPass rates 73.2 with a slope of 136, so it is more about placement than length. Kingsmill describes it as bordered by the James, and the run home brings the river into view. The PGA Tour’s Michelob Championship was played here for 22 years, and the LPGA event that followed produced champions including Annika Sörenstam, Cristie Kerr and Lexi Thompson. The resort calls it a Golf Digest top 100 course.

Know before you go.

Access

Resort guests and Club at Kingsmill members only

Woods Course

Full golf members only

Tee times

Online request form or 757.253.3906

Carts

Included; cart-path rule set each morning

Ride-along passenger

US$30 plus tax, if carts allow

Dress

Collared shirts; no denim; Bermuda-length shorts allowed

Make the trip work.

Winter here is a genuine bargain: from 2 November the River Course drops from US$275 to US$165, and the resort is open year-round. Rates include the range on your day of play; on other days range balls cost US$15. The superintendent decides each morning whether carts may go on the fairways, and cart-path-only days add about half an hour to the usual four to four and a half hours. If two junior golfers without driving licences join an adult, one must walk.

Newport News/Williamsburg (PHF) is the closest airport, roughly 25 minutes by car. Richmond (RIC) and Norfolk (ORF) both have more flights and are each about an hour’s drive. Amtrak trains from Washington and Richmond stop at Williamsburg station, a short taxi ride from the resort gate.

Where it is.

Somewhere to settle in.

Staying at Kingsmill is the only way in for non-members. Many rooms are suites in condo-style buildings close to the river, which suit golf groups sharing a living room, and the Stay and Play package needs at least seven days’ notice to cancel without paying in full. For a different base, the historic inns of Colonial Williamsburg are about ten minutes away, but you would then need a Kingsmill room for each night you want to play. Williamsburg’s chain hotels along Richmond Road are cheaper but carry the same catch.

Make a trip of it.

Golden Horseshoe Golf Club, inside Colonial Williamsburg, has Robert Trent Jones Sr.’s Gold Course and sells public tee times, so it makes a good second course without another hotel booking. Busch Gardens Williamsburg is effectively next door, which helps families. The Historic Triangle, with Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, gives a full day or two of history within half an hour of the first tee.

Find your season.

Kingsmill’s 2026 calendar has three pricing periods: low from January to 9 April, peak from 10 April to 1 November, and low again from 2 November. April, May, late September and October bring the best weather. July and August in tidewater Virginia are hot and humid, so take the earliest tee times.