Changes

Taconic Golf Club is owned by Williams College and currently rated the #1 collegiate course in the nation by Golfweek Magazine. It also claims the 30th spot in the best public courses in the United States according to Golf Magazine. Taconic is located at the southern edge of campus off of at 19 Meacham Street , next to Weston Field. It is less than a 5 minute walk from Spring Street, and it is not uncommon to see students carrying golf bags across campus down to the course. The club opened on September 5th, 1896 as a 7-hole course, including the present diabolical 17th green. The primitive course layout was upgraded in 1928 by Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek to an 18-hole par 73 test. When the clubhouse was forced to move from South Street to its present location, the 2nd and 3rd holes were changed and the course became its current 6640 yard, par 71 design.

Taconic is a venerable golf course, having hosted numerous national and state championships. The U.S. Junior Amateur was held here in 1956, and Harlan Stevenson of California defeated Jack Rule, Jr. of Iowa 3 and 1. Of note, Rule beat 16-year-old Jack Nicklaus in the semifinals 1 up. The 1963 U.S. Women’s Amateur was won by Anne Sander of Seattle, WA over 16-year-old Peggy Conley of Spokane, WA. More recently, in 1996, the U.S. Senior Amateur came to Taconic, and Gordon Brewer’s par on the 18th hole beat Heyward Sullivan 2 up. National college tournaments championships have been held several times in Williamstown – in 1999 Methodist College took home the championship division III national title with a team score of 1190, with - Williams College came in 10th place with 1246 strokes. The Massachusetts Amateur was contested in July, 2004, and won by Frank Vana with Williams College golfer Zach McArthur as his caddy.

Williams College supports both men's and women's varsity golf teams - the women are a first year varsity program as of 2005, and while the men have long been one of the best division III programs in the country. In the April 2005 District Shootout at Taconic, the Williams men’s varsity set a team single round scoring record of 289 counting a 70, 71, 71, and 77 as their best four scores. The course record from the back tees is 67, quite surprisingly high for a relatively short course that has seen hundreds of high quality players compete the past half century. Chad Collins of Methodist College in the 1999 Division III National Tournament shot a 66 included in his total winning score of even par 284, but several tee markers had been moved up from their normal back locations on that day.

Taconic Golf Club is a great resource for Williams College, and the students, faculty, and staff seem to treasure their opportunity. The course is very popular with students, who pay just $125 a semester for unlimited golf – compare this to Yale University which has a similarly excellent golf course and charges students $725 a semester. The unique opportunity of students playing with their professors is reinforced by the current college president, Morty Schapiro, who hosts a scramble tournament each spring and fall pairing staff, faculty, and students together. In recent history, teams including Kevin Kellert ’07 have been particularly successful. The varsity men's team competes yearly against the best members of Taconic in the Shultz Cup, a match play competition named after Williams alumnus George Shultz. After losing for decades, the college kids claimed victory against the savvy members in the fall of 2002 for the first time, and have not lost since. The Taconic experience is completed by Cathy and Rick Pohle’s welcoming environment in the clubhouse for all, and Kent Lemme and Matt Berger and the grounds crew’s work keeping the course in pristine condition.

The members greens committee of the course are Taconic is currently considering a bunker renovation project to start in the near futurenext 3 to 5 years. Depending on the workwhat changes are decided on, this could be a positive or negative turn for Taconic: actions such as restoring the old Stiles and Van Kleek cross bunkers on the 7th hole or perhaps moving the obsolete 6th hole bunkers further uphill toward the green would be a step in the right direction, but major relocation of bunkers and greens could sour the wonderful ambience and fluidity the course currently enjoys. A better step would be to start with clearing out unnecessary tree plantings in order to reestablish driving strategy and also open up more vistas across fairways and to distant peaks. The course was originally built on farmland, and while the majestic pines add separation and isolation to individual holes, opening up selective cross-course views would add to the classic nature of the layout.

The golf at Taconic Golf Club and the academics at Williams College are both among the best the United States has to offer. There is nothing better than a Saturday afternoon spent golfing on Taconic with the crisp air, changing leaves, and the roar of Williams College football reverberating across the entire course. Every student should make a point to play a round at Taconic sometime during their four years here.