Info:        

Stowe Mountain Resort
5781 Mountain Road
Stowe, VT 05672

Web:
www.stowe.com

Phone:
800-253-4754
802-253-3000

Stowe Mountain Club

Web:
Stowe Mountain Club

Phone:
888-478-6938

Greens Fee:
• Semi-private. $205 plus tax includes cart and guide book.
• Non-members can only pay to play the course if they are staying in the Stowe Mountain Lodge.

Stowe Country Club:

Web:
Stowe Country Club

Phone:
800-253-4754 802-253-3000

Greens Fee:
• Semi-private. $105 plus tax includes cart.
• Lodging packages with discounted golf are available from Stowe Mountain Resort.
 

Golfing Stowe                              

Score High or Low at Two Elevations & Two Very Different Courses

by Sean Mulready
photos by Mitch Kaplan

"Golf Stowe!"

It’s not the bumper sticker you'd expect from the famous Vermont resort.
 
You’re supposed to "Ski Stowe!" and challenge the Front Four. When the snow melts, you're supposed to shop for new skis.
 
The fact that the Stowe area hosts three times as many guests in the warm weather as it does in the cold has never weakened its identification with winter. The opening of a second golf course, however, just might.
 
For the past 50 years, people have pursued the little white ball just outside the center of town here, where cows once roamed on the rolling hills that comprise Stowe Country Club. Now, those who overnight at Stowe Mountain Lodge can nearly double the elevation, and money spent, by heading up the access road to the spectacular one-year-old Stowe Mountain Club course.
 
Farmers would have lost a lot of animals had they allowed them to graze at the elevations where today you’ll find that Bob Cupp-designed, semi-private layout. Each hole offers changes in elevation, sloping fairways and endless views.

The images are at once breathtaking and intimidating.

Shot Making—Not Power Shooting                       
 
From the first hole where golfers are faced with a long carry to the fairway, the course teases and tempts with various risk options. You could open with a driver on the first hole but you’d be smart to keep the big club in the bag for much of the day. A fairway wood gets you in position on the first hole. It takes that club, a gulp of mountain air, and some steady nerves to replicate that long carry off the tee at the sixth hole, where the rocking chair beside the tee box gives you a chance to catch your breath.
 
I stood there for more than a few seconds trying to figure out which way I should be facing and why I needed a rocking chair. There is no fairway in sight. The shot is to the golfer’s left as you approach the tee, a long carry across a rocky ravine that offers just a glimpse at some fairway grass at the top.
 
Just a hole later, you have to hit off a high ridge to a green that’s about 150 feet lower in elevation and no more than a pitching wedge away on most days—if you can figure out how to clear the rocky outcropping in front and adjust to the persistent winds on the exposed tee boxes.
 
It’s that way on all 18 holes. You may not always be so perplexed about where to hit but you’ll nearly always be thinking about what to swing. Most of the time, an iron or a hybrid off the tee will give you the best chance of putting the ball in play. From the blue tees, there are only four holes that stretch over 400 yards. It’s not about distance. It’s about the game, about strategy, and about impossible to stay focused when nearly every hole offers dramatic mountain backdrops.
 
Still, you have to think clearly  if you want to score well here.  On every shot, from the tee, the fairway or on the green, you have to account for slope. Hitting the center of the fairway can be a big mistake when the meticulously groomed stretches are tilted sharply towards rough, water or ravines.
 
The same care must be taken when approaching the greens. There is enough slope on some that you’ll often discover that some sections of the green simply won’t give you a fair shot at holing a putt. Staying below the hole in those situations isn’t just preferred. It’s required.
 
The staff provides each golfer with a carefully produced guidebook of all 18 holes. Those who don’t do their homework, or at least cram for a minute at each tee, will flunk the many tests of this highland course and return with a depleted supply of golf balls and a diminished ego.

A Saner Round on Lower Ground                        
 
Once you’ve sampled the one-year-old course, you might want to slide down the access road to the Stowe Country Club for a more manageable round of golf. The topography there provides some similar hilly lies, but golfers can breath easier here, and that has nothing to do with elevation.
 
The fairways are fairly wide. Their major challenge is often a crossing stream or wetland. The scenery is still extraordinary but the challenges are more familiar.

On the par five 14th, for example, golfers must decide whether to lay up in front of a crossing stream. The area is visible and signs at the tees specify the yardage to reach and carry the stream from each set of tees. I chose to drive it into the water.
 
Despite that shot and other atrocities, I will head back to play both courses someday. Maybe by then they’ll be handing out those "Golf Stowe" bumper stickers.