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Williamsburg now offers yet another great layout

Golf-crazy Williamsburg continues to add new options to its list of world-class courses.

With the addition of nine new holes this summer, Ford’s Colony just opened Blue Heron, a par-72, 6,873-yard course designed by Dan Maples.

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Combined with the Blue Nine to form the new course, Blue Heron provides Ford’s Colony with 54 holes of challenging golf. Each of the three 18-hole courses, Blue Heron, Marsh Hawk, and Blackheath, give golfers a variety of playing options.

“With the completion of the last nine holes, Ford’s Colony can now offer three different courses to golfers, all of which are equally impressive and offer their own unique features,” says director of golf, Scott Jones.

The renowned Maples designed all three layouts, but each has a different style. The new Blue Heron layout is unique, in that nine holes (5-13) are situated separately, across a vast expanse of natural wetlands spanned by a 600-foot wooden bridge. This creates the effect of three distinct golf experiences in a single round. The course is skirted by three natural water features of Ford’s Colony: Powhatan Creek, Austin’s Run, and Chisel Run.

Black Heath was dedicated in mid-1999, as Maples successfully went for an English countryside look, with rambling fairways flanked by homes integrated into the ancient trees. Marsh Hawk opened in 1985 as the original Ford’s Colony course, as Maples and his father, Ellis, designed smallish greens and some tight tree-lined fairways.

Ford’s Colony is one of the nation’s premier planned communities. Nestled in the beautiful rolling woodlands of Williamsburg, the 2,800-acre resort features one of the state’s top restaurants (The Dining Room) in its upscale clubhouse. A wide variety of accommodations are nearby, as are all of the sightseeing possibilities in Colonial Williamsburg. Those who play the new course, as well as the other two Maples designs, may just end up exploring the homes of Ford’s Colony, ranging from the intimate courtyard community of St. Andrew’s Village to the stately homes of Highland Hills.