Not every round needs to be 18 holes. The Shoe is proof of that.
Opened in 2025 and designed by Rees Jones, The Shoe is a 9-hole all-par-3 course built on a portion of the former Spotswood Course adjacent to the Gold Course at Golden Horseshoe. It’s the first new course at Colonial Williamsburg in over 30 years and the only layout of its kind in the Williamsburg market. Nine holes, 760 total yards, ranging from 43 to 137 yards, and you can get around in about an hour.
What It Is and Who It’s For
The Shoe was built to answer a real demand — not everyone in your group has five hours, not every day on a golf trip needs to be a full round, and not every golfer in a group is ready to take on the Gold Course. Rees Jones designed all nine holes with variable tee boxes that let players shorten holes further, which keeps it genuinely accessible without feeling like a pushover. Four bunkers, undulating greens, and a pond that comes into play on a couple of holes add enough teeth to make it interesting for any level of player.
From certain holes on the back end of the course you can see the 12th and 16th holes of the Gold Course — including the famous island green. If you’re playing the Shoe for the first time, it’s a nice preview of what’s waiting next door.
Where It Fits in a Williamsburg Trip
This is the course you play on arrival day before dinner, or the morning of a departure day when you don’t have time for 18. It also works as a family addition — spouses, kids, and non-golfers who want to participate without committing to a full round on the Gold or Green can get out there and genuinely enjoy it. The round takes about an hour, and the setting is the same mature Golden Horseshoe grounds that make the bigger courses special.
It won’t replace the Gold Course on your itinerary. It shouldn’t. But it fills a real gap in what Williamsburg golf had been missing and adds flexibility to how you build a trip around this property.
Building a Williamsburg golf package that includes Golden Horseshoe and Kingsmill? Coastal Golfaway has been putting golfers on great courses since 1986. Reach out and we’ll handle the details.
