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Taconic Golf Club is owned by Williams College and is currently rated the #1 collegiate course in the nation by Golfweek Magazine. It also claims the 30th 28th spot in the best public courses in the United States according to Golf Magazine. Taconic is located at the southern edge of campus at 19 Meacham Street, next to [[Weston Field]]. It is less than a 5 minute walk from [[Spring Street ]] or the [[Odd Quad]], and it is not uncommon to see students carrying golf bags across campus down to the course.

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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 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 Brewer's par on the 18th hole beat Heyward Sullivan 2 up. National college championships have been held several times in Williamstown – - in 1999 Methodist College took home the division III national title with a team score of 1190 - 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 '05 as his caddy.

Taconic is renowned as one of the most beautiful places in the world to play golf in the fall, as tees and greens throughout the course provide stunning vistas of the Berkshire Mountains. The long views on the course combine with the wonderful small-town atmosphere of the club itself, highlighted by a faded sign on the pro shop reading “No "No Preferred Lies, We Play Golf Here.” " Golfers at Taconic pride themselves on quick pace of play, and the compact routing allows singles and twosomes to often play 18 holes in closer to 2 hours than 4. Though the course is hilly, almost all golfers walk and carry their bag, so seeing 90 year-old members walk is not an uncommon sight.

Other unique oddities of Taconic include a mirror behind the 10th tee to see the blind fairway, a birdhouse labeled “Suggestion Box” "Suggestion Box" smack in the middle of the pond on the 4th hole, and the Latin phrase “medio "medio tutissimus ibis” ibis" written on the scorecard, translating to “safer "safest from the middle.”"

'''Par 5, 475 yards.''' The first tee is only yards from the door of the pro shop and outdoor patio, providing an intimate setting to begin the round. A wide fairway greets the player, only narrowing to a 20-yard wide neck at a shallow gully 275 yards off the tee. The In the Fall of his sophomore year, this generous fairway did not help Williams golfer Will Sirignano in 2003 when '06 as he blocked his tee a ball to the right, over the trees right of the fairway, over the adjacent 18th fairway, over the out-of-bounds fence, and onto the football field –- . He then proceeded to salvage a mere 75 yards offline! miraculous par. The green tilts left to right and the bunker 30 yards short of the green left is a poor place to leave second shots.

'''Par 4, 407 yards.''' One of the best holes on the course, both strategically and aesthetically. The tee ball is over the corner of a field of wildflowers to a fairway that dramatically narrows and twists to the right at the 140 yard mark. To The prudent play is often a 3-wood to the left side of the fairway which leaves a perfect angle to the difficult green. If deciding to hit a driver, you should fade the ballslightly, yet a ball too far to the right may kick into the creek that meanders 20 yards right of the fairway. This tee ball would be better if three large oak trees on the right were taken out, as they block the landscape of the mountains and only help contain balls that would otherwise find the hazard on the right. The hole concludes with a great hilltop green with Gale Road out of bounds hard on the right and Phoebe’s Phoebe's Creek gathering balls hit too far left of the putting surface. The green itself is severely slanted to the front of the green on the first half, and then right to left on the upper tier.

'''Par 4, 361 yards.''' The uphill tee shot may look tight at first, but the sixth hole in fact is one of the easiest driving holes on the course. Both fairway bunkers are out of play for the good player, just 200 yards off the tee, and many tee shots will end up within only pitching or sand wedge distance. However, now the approach is with a spinning club to perhaps the best green on the course: a large false front, a hump on the middle right, and a tongue extending to form the back left portion of the surface. A shot finishing anywhere above the hole will require perfect touch just to keep the subsequent putt on the green. Many seasoned Taconic members will lay up short of a front pin even with a wedge and rely on chipping to produce a 4. In a 2004 Massachusetts Amateur match, Frank Vana and Jim Renner (who recently lost to Michelle Wie in the PubLinks) halved the hole with bogeys after both being 100 yards from the green with their drives. Commented Renner to Vana, “I don’t "I don't know how to hit a shot into that green!”"

'''Par 4, 470 yards.''' A classic driving hole from an elevated tee, the drive will probably end up about 200 yards from the green at the base of a slight hill. From there, the green is partially blind, and the long iron shot should be played short and right of the green to allow the ground to funnel the ball left to the hole. Because many second shots start to the right, the right greenside bunker gets a lot of play – - it is a large horseshoe style bunker that is shared with the 8th green. A grove of pine trees in front of this bunker should be taken out to enhance the feeling of openness between the 8th and 11th holes.

'''Par 3, 173 yards.''' The narrowest target on the course, the 14th green is accessed with a short to mid iron hit from the most elevated spot on the course - a spot very prone to strong crosswinds. The hole plays along a ridgeline and is defended by 6 bunkers, some simply candy for the eyes. Of interest, the green and its surroundings were the basis of an illustration on the cover of Money Magazine a number of years ago. Between the gold and blue tees is embedded a plaque honoring Jack Nicklaus’s Nicklaus's hole in one here in the 1956 Junior Amateur. Bunkers right and left take soft sand shots to get out and find the pin, as their shoulders help kick blasts across the green.

'''Par 4, 430 yards.''' Equally long to #15, but playing much longer back up the hill that #15 came down, the sixteenth hole is a demanding second shot hole. A good tee ball leaves anywhere from a mid to long iron up a 50 foot incline to a hilltop green. The green, as with many at Taconic, flows with the land back down the hill making the green very quick back to front. Many second shots end up short, which leaves simple pitches up to the hole – - second shots long leave the golfer a delicate lob back to the green with the hope of just holding the green, let alone entertaining thoughts of par.

'''Par 3, 221 yards.''' A challenging and exacting long iron is a must for the penultimate hole, which features a heavily tilted green back to front. The green was part of the original course in 1896, and while green speeds have quickened a bit since then, the slope of the land has notchanged, producing many bogies and double bogies around this green. The tee ball should be played short of the green –a - a hill short right of the green can be used to kick the ball up onto the surface if the pin is back. Once the tee shot is in play, hopefully below the hole, the second shot must stay below the hole as well to leave an uphill putt for par. In the 1970’s1970's, the house behind the green was occupied by a Williams student, who also happened to be the Shah of Iran’s Iran's son. Any shots long of the green in this era were subject to inspection by security and bodyguards who made sure golfers did not threaten the house in any manner!

[[Image:Taconic3rdhole.jpg|left|thumbnail|Proposed changes to the 3rd hole]]The greens committee of Taconic is currently considering a bunker renovation course restoration project to start in be completed during the next 3 to 5 yearswinter of 2006-2007. Depending on what changes They are decided onworking with architect Gil Hanse, who has had a hand in restoring such classic courses as Merion East, Kittansett, this could be and Fenway. One exciting proposed change is adding a positive or negative turn lower tee for Taconic: #12 to the left of the existing tee. actions such This would make the tee ball more intimidating, as restoring the old Stiles angle would be sharper and the shot semi-blind up and Van Kleek cross bunkers over the steep falloff; hopefully Hanse will also consider removing the huge oak that currently constricts the dangerous long left driving alley. The second major change will involve the third hole - adding fairway bunkering on the left while reconfiguring the landing areas. This proposed change alters one of the best par fours on the 7th hole or perhaps moving course, so hopefully the obsolete 6th resulting hole bunkers further uphill toward will not fall anything short of excellent. The third drastic proposed change is to cut down 37 pine trees behind the 16th green would be to make it a "skyline" putting surface - this will provide a thrilling long iron shot to a step in flag flapping against the sky while also opening up dramatic views across the front nine. Other changes include adding fairway bunkering on 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, and 15 while removing the right directioncurrent bland oval fairway bunkers on 6, 7, but major relocation of and 8; adding greenside bunkers on 5, 15, and greens could sour 18; recapturing lost green space on almost every hole; stretching fairways back out to their original width to tie them to bunkers that now lie disconnected in the wonderful ambience rough; and fluidity adding new back tees to 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, and 18 - in total adding 200 yards to the course currently enjoys. A better step would The tees on 16, 17, and 18 will bring those already punishing holes to 460 yards, 245 yards, and 535 yards, respectively - should be quite the tough finish to start with clearing out unnecessary tree plantings the already demanding back nine! Sketches of the master plan can be seen here: http://www.taconicgolf.com/CourseMasterPlan/index.htm.  From an interview on golfclubatlas.com, a few of Hanse's thoughts on restoring classic courses such as Taconic: "I think that the restoration of any classic courses should not be constrained in any way by what is considered reasonable in order to reestablish driving strategy this day and also open up more vistas across fairways age. I think that the true charm and character of these courses can often be found in what has been removed or altered from the original design. Most often the reason that these features have been removed is that they were considered unfair or obsolete. It is our contention that what is often considered unfair by the mainstream member, is the very stuff that you want to distant peaksreintroduce. Because these features must have had a very real influence on the playability of the golf course for them to be so controversial. The fact that someone had to think about a feature is what every architect should be striving toward.  So often these courses have been emasculated through the removal of 'controversial' features, and then tree lined so that the destruction of any form of recovery or angle of attack is removed from the course was originally built . In essence, golf on farmlandmany of these courses has been reduced to hit it in play or in the trees. If you hit it in play, it would be unfair to have anything in front of you i.e., cross bunkers, berms, or a natural feature that obscured your view. If you hit it in the trees, you really don't deserve a chance at recovery, so chip it out sideways. I truly believe that the introduction of way too many trees and while the majestic pines add separation eradication of classic features have seriously eroded the quality of these old courses. The beauty of many of these courses is that the architect set the course up to make recovery shots more difficult, through the angling of a green, the locations of bunkers, etc. Difficult, yet not impossible as it is from the tree lined courses of today." Hanse's ideology and isolation experience appear to individual holes, opening up selective be an excellent fit for Taconic as it moves forward with course changes. Thinning out trees and adding long-forgotten crossbunkers such as on the par four 7th are a necessary step in making Taconic an even purer golden-age golf course views would add to than it is currently. With well-thought out restoration strategies completed, Taconic will shine even brighter as one of the classic nature few true jewels of the layoutNew England golf.

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 $165 a semester for unlimited golf and club storage – - 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 '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 2002|Fall of 2002]] for the first time, and have not lost since. The Taconic experience is completed by Cathy and Rick Pohle’s Pohle's welcoming environment in the clubhouse for all, Greg Canales' excellent selection of BBC beer and food in the restaurant, and Kent Lemme and Matt Berger and the grounds crew’s crew's work keeping the course in pristine condition.