Making Stowe more stunning

Work has commenced on an extensive golf course renovation at Stowe Country Club in Stowe, Vermont. Directed by Beau Welling Design, the project will feature enhancements to the 18-hole course as well as the club’s other amenities.

“As a design team, we are collaborators at heart, and we are excited to be working alongside Stowe Country Club to breathe new life into one of the best golf courses in the region,” said Beau Welling, founder and CEO of Beau Welling Design. “This project will make the golf course more approachable for the average player while retaining the precise challenge that members and guests have enjoyed for over 70 years. We’re honored to play a role in refreshing this historic club to be enjoyed by the current membership and generations to come.”

While the footprint of the golf course will mostly remain the same, the improvements will elevate all facets of the course. Led by Welling and BWD senior design associate Chase Webb, the renovation will improve the playability of the course for the less experienced player while focusing on strategy and challenge for advanced golfers. Additional structural changes will also improve the environmental sustainability of the golf course, which is guided by the work of director of agronomy Kevin Komer and team.

Improvements and updates to the course include:

• Renovating greens and enhancing approaches and surrounds
• Shaping and regrading select fairways
• Replacing and modernizing fairway and greenside bunkers
• Regrassing greens, tees and fairways to bentgrass, and integrating a Kentucky bluegrass and fescue blend for roughs
• Adding length where possible and emphasizing approach angles
• Long-term tree plan to ensure consistent turf conditions throughout the property and further highlight scenic vistas
• Expanding fescue stands throughout the property
• Improving drainage on every hole
• Securing the water future and sustainability of the course through a new irrigation system, pump station and the addition of a supplemental river pump

The renovation project will occur in two parts, with construction on the front nine holes set for 2024 and the back-nine renovation planned for 2025.

Beau Welling Design also assisted the club with campus planning that includes a new golf facilities area, practice area, expanded amenities and a future residential community.

“We are thrilled to partner with Beau and his team to create one of the best private clubs in northern New England, right here in Stowe,” said Sam Gaines, president and CEO of Mt. Mansfield Company, the developer of Stowe Country Club.  “These dramatic golf course improvements to Stowe Country Club, when combined with our spectacular Mountain Course at Spruce Peak, will create one of the most unique and diverse 36-hole experiences for members and guests.”

The renovation begins a new membership program as Stowe Country Club intends to create a four-season community-oriented club centered around golf, racquet sports, fitness/pool and dining. Members have been provided interim benefits at The Club at Spruce Peak, which includes the 18-hole, Bob Cupp-designed Mountain Course. Members of The Club at Spruce Peak will continue to receive full access to Stowe Country Club. 

“It’s an exciting time for our membership,” says Michael Harger, general manager of Stowe Country Club and The Club at Spruce Peak. “So many of us have a vested interest in this historic course, and it’s been a thrilling process to lay the groundwork for the next generation of golf enthusiasts in the Stowe community.”