Those readers kind enough to have perused the previous post will recall that our base for this golf adventure was Woodford State Park, where we spent a relaxing and enjoyable week. It is, in fact, a spot I would highly recommend to anyone seeking a comfortable, rustic and private campground near Bennington. As the previous post was written before the end of our stay, there follows a few more photos of the park so that you can get a fuller sense of the place.

Having already reported on our experience at the excellent Brattleboro Country Club, we next visited the outstanding Mt. Snow golf course, affiliated as it is with the winter ski area of the same name. Mt. Snow is a spectacular and lavishly upscale course, which we somehow managed to play for only $49 — including cart! Apparently they offer a steep discount midweek in order to entice people to play, so we ended up with an outstanding day of golf for about 1/3 the usual cost.

Steve and I (well, mostly Steve, but I agree!) have evolved a four-star golf course rating scale, where the truly exceptional and very top-end courses (like Cabot Cliffs, Sugarloaf, Sunday River and Kebo Valley, described elsewhere in this blog) merit four stars. Such courses are flawlessly maintained and offer spectacular scenery, usually at prices exceeding $100/round and sometimes even more. Excellent, premium courses merit three stars, places like The Meadows, Fairlawn, and Spring Meadows in Maine, courses in great shape (where the fairways are lush, the greens are smooth, the sand traps are fluffy and the tee boxes are level) but without perhaps the “wow” factor of stunning scenery as well. Our own beloved home course, Springbrook, rates two stars: decently-kept but mildly deficient in one regard or another (at Springbrook, it’s the sand traps, which are more usually either cement or lakes rather than nice fluffy sand), and while lovely in its own way (wildflowers in bloom throughout the course), without a strong visual impact. The one-star courses are basic golf — tee boxes, fairways and greens, most of which are beat up, sand traps with weeds in them, dead spots and unfilled divots throughout the course. And the mowing may be scattershot as well.

I offer you this analysis so that you will understand when I tell you that Mt. Snow is absolutely a four-star course on our humble scale, and so to play it for 1/3 the usual price was a major victory for us. Consider these views (you can click on any photo for a full view and then scroll through the lot):

We try to include one such premium course on each trip, and we for sure were not disappointed at Mt. Snow. Stepping down to about 2 on our scale is the very worthy Waubeeka Golf Links. I enjoyed this signpost outside their clubhouse:

Waubeeka offered us a fine golf course and a fun day, but with only a couple of photos to share, there was limited visual impact at Waubeeka.

We ended our Vermont golf excursion at Stamford Valley, a humble mom-and-pop golf establishment offering a basic (1-star) golf experience. Part of the reasoning for this score is that they did not accept plastic! We were forced to use their ATM machine (with an extra fee!) in order to secure cash for the greens fee. We had a pleasant day here, and received value for the low greens fee we paid. I can recommend Stamford Valley to those seeking unpretentious, rudimentary, straightforward golf. Here’s a view of the last (ninth) hole and the clubhouse.

We ended our Vermont excursion with a fine dinner at the Golden Eagle restaurant on the famous hairpin turn in nearby Clarksburg, Massachusetts. Here’s the view from the dining terrace:

These photos of the Berkshires were taken from the road near the restaurant:

As an (interesting?) aside, I attempted on this trip to utilize some fire-building skills I attained a couple of years ago at the Maine Primitive Skills school in Augusta. There I learned that if you build a “crib” out of the firewood, stacking logs crisscross into a pile as though making lasagna, you will then have two choices: if you light your kindling at the base of the “crib”, you get a fast, hot fire, excellent for (say) cooking steaks. But if you light your kindling on top of the “crib”, somehow it will burn down into the pile, giving you a long, slow fire, perfect for roasting marshmallows. I attempted this top-down fire several times on this trip, always with excellent results, such that this will be my preferred method going forward.

Soon we depart for a golf trip to northern Maine; I hope to post again from there!