 18th green at River Course in 2014 | |
| Club information | |
|---|---|
   | |
| Coordinates | 37°13′30″N76°40′05″W / 37.225°N 76.668°W /37.225; -76.668 |
| Location | Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Elevation | 50 feet (15 m) |
| Established | 1975; 50 years ago (1975) |
| Type | Resort (River, Plantation) Private (Woods) |
| Total holes | 37 |
| Events hosted | Kingsmill Championship (2012–present) Michelob ULTRA Open (2003–2009) Michelob Championship (1981–2002) |
| Greens | Bentgrass |
| Fairways | Bermuda /Ryegrass[1] |
| Website | kingsmill.com/golf |
| River Course | |
| Designed by | Pete Dye (1975, 2004)[1] |
| Par | 71 |
| Length | 6,831 yards (6,246 m)[2] |
| Course rating | 73.2 |
| Slope rating | 136[3] |
| Plantation Course | |
| Designed by | Arnold Palmer, Ed Seay |
| Par | 71 |
| Length | 6,254 yards (5,719 m)[2] |
| Course rating | 70.7 |
| Slope rating | 129[4] |
| Woods Course | |
| Designed by | Tom Clark,Curtis Strange |
| Par | 72 |
| Length | 6,659 yards (6,089 m)[5] |
| Course rating | 72.2 |
| Slope rating | 133[6] |
Kingsmill Resort is a vacation, conference, andgolf resort in theeasternUnited States, located inJames City County, Virginia, southeast ofWilliamsburg. It is located on a portion of theKingsmill Plantation; the original plantation structures and their successors have long been in ruins. It was founded in the 1970s byAnheuser-Busch as part of related developments nearColonial Williamsburg. In 2010, Kingsmill Resort, which sits within a large residentialplanned community of the same name, was slated to become a vital piece of the entertainment and hospitality system operated byXanterra Parks and Resorts, one of many enterprises owned by Denver-based billionairePhilip Anschutz. Anschutz bought Xanterra in 2008 after it was a Fred Harvey hospitality company dating to 1876.[7]
The Kingsmill Resort has 425 rooms, five restaurants, 17,000 square feet (1,600 m2) of conference space, a spa and fitness center, marina, and a 15-court tennis center. Three championship golf courses (two at the resort, one private) surround the resort and are nestled within a largeplanned community (management of which is not part of the Kingsmill Resort). The resort has hosted a total of 29 professional golf tournaments from 1981 until 2009, among themLPGA andPGA Tour events.[8] The resort has also been a perennial venue for political conferences, such as national governors conferences and congressional caucuses.[9]
The area features the three main sites of theHistoric Triangle of Colonial Virginia which are linked by theColonial Parkway (Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, and Yorktown), as well as theBusch Gardens Williamsburg andWater Country USAtheme parks, joined by smaller attractions, hotels, time-sharing developments, restaurants, retirement complexes, and other venues.
Beginning in the early 1970s, largely on a 2,900-acre (12 km2) tract of property which was formerly part of theKingsmill Plantation, the Kingsmill Resort was developed by Anheuser-Busch (A-B) as a portion of the brewing company's development of diversified activities in the Williamsburg area, which grew to include not only the brewery, but theBusch Gardens Williamsburgtheme park, and large upscale developments of residential and office park properties such as that atMcLaws Circle.
The St. Louis-based brewer invested in the area following negotiations held betweenAugust Busch, II andWinthrop Rockefeller, a son of Colonial Williamsburg's initial chief mentor,John D. Rockefeller Jr. Winthrop Rockefeller had been serving as both governor of Arkansas and chairman ofColonial Williamsburg in the 1960s and 1970s. (Water Country USA, a localwater park, was acquired by A-B in the 1990s, and added to the company's theme park activities, which include a number ofSeaWorld properties in other states as well).
In the last part of the 20th and early into the 21st century, as a brewer, A-B found itself increasingly in tough competition in an increasingly global market.
In 2008, after initially resisting an unsolicited stock bid, A-B announced it had reached an agreement to be acquired by the even larger Belgium-basedInBev, the world's largest brewing company. The newer owners announced plans to sell-off the portions of A-B activities which were not part of the core beverage business as it worked to reduce debt incurred to fund the acquisition.
As A-B had been a major employer and strong community supporter for many years, there was widespread speculation and more than a little apprehension about who might ultimately acquire and control the theme parks, the resort, and other Busch developments in the region.
Since then, theBlackstone Group acquired the company's 10 theme parks, including two near Williamsburg.[10]
In July 2010, it was announced that Xanterra had entered into an agreement,[11] to purchase and operate the Kingsmill Resort. In 1968, Xanterra became the successor to theFred Harvey Company established by entrepreneurFred Harvey in 1875.[12] Xanterra was acquired by Denver-based billionairePhilip Anschutz in 2008 and has operated in national and state parks across the United States, especially in the Western regions.[10]
In March 2017, Fort Worth-based Escalante Golf acquired Kingsmill Resort.[13]