In that seasonal sweet spot between snowmelt and snow’s return, golfers dust off their sticks and gear up for some heady thrills in the hills, where they are often teeing it up in the shadows of ski lifts. Today just about every major ski area in the region has a golf course, some more than one. In Vermont’s Killington area alone, there are 15 courses. Most climb and fall over blind ridges and hills and dip down to valleys with a few exceptions like Okemo Valley Golf Club in Ludlow, which plays more like a parkland course.

Some have deep roots. Mount Washington Hotel & Resort in Bretton Woods, N.H., has been welcoming guests like Winston Churchill, Babe Ruth and Bobby Jones for more than a century. Playing against a diorama of pine-clad mountains, its historic Donald Ross track (1915) was carefully restored by Brian Silva from original plans and reopened in 2008. As you play down the par-5 No. 11 and par-3 No. 5, be sure to catch the soaring red roof of the grand Spanish Renaissance-style hotel, which rises from the trees like a European castle.

Skirting the Ammonoosuc River, Mount Washington’s nine-hole Mount Pleasant Course (1895), which has played host over the years to such golfing greats as Harry Vardon and Alex Findlay, was restored in 1989 by Silva and Geoffrey Cornish.

Off the course, golfers and non-golfers alike can enjoy the spa, where treatment rooms look out to Mount Washington — or head out for a hike, bike or soar over the country side on a canopy tour concluding with a ride on the Williwaw Racing Zip, a dual, side-by-side zip line.

With an 8,000-acre setting evoking the Alps – everything but the cow bells — New Hampshire’s White Mountains are home to The Balsams Grand Hotel in Dixville Notch, another historic treasure dating back to 1866. The resort’s “Ballot Room” is always in the news each election day as the two dozen or so area residents report the results of their “first in the nation” voting.

Here Donald Ross fans can play the restored Panorama Course at the base of Mount Keazer; several holes are very close to Ross’s original layout. There is also the executive nine-hole Coashaukee Course, while area adventurers celebrate the outdoors with fishing on Lake Gloriette and Mud Pond (don’t let the name put you off — it’s a beautiful spot and great for kayaking). An expansive outdoor pool is in sight of the golf courses and mountains.

Just north of Lake Winnipesaukee, Owl’s Nest Golf Club is sculpted into the contours of the Pemigewasset River Valley in Campton, N.H., opened in 1998 to many thumbs up from golf connoisseurs. A Cornish, Silva and Mark Mungeam design, serious elevations make for some incredible views, especially from atop Sunset Hill on holes 14 and 16, where you’re teeing off 200 feet above the landing area.

Several well-placed bunkers, tricky lies, doglegs, wetlands and water hazards, all capable of delivering a serious punch are balanced by feel-good holes like No. 8 where a drive to the right side will kick your ball back into the fairway, while mounding on No. 11 coddles your second shot channeling your ball onto the green.

Commanding the crest of a hill, Owl’s Nest’s clubhouse offers more mountain highs with sweeping vistas of snow-capped peaks and dense stands of tall pines.

Owl’s Nest is part of a residential development, making it an excellent choice for golfing groups with on-site accommodations. Guests can unwind after golf in the Activities Center’s outdoor pool, game room and restaurant.
Over the border, the Sound of Music is alive and well in Stowe, Vt., an area packed with resorts, ski lodges, restaurants and shops.

Its original course, Stowe Country Club, is the oldest of the mountain courses, set on land that was once a dairy farm. With 360-degree views of the mountains, it hunkers at the foot of massive Mount Mansfield, Vermont’s highest peak. Designed by William F. Mitchell, many of the holes climb up and down the slopes; others are laid at the bottom of the slopes with hills on both sides.

Scenery reigns at the newest kid on the block, the Stowe Mountain Club at Spruce Peak. When Bob Cupp put his finishing touches on the new track, he said, “There may be no finer collection of short par fours anywhere in America.”
Cupp admits the rocky site was not an easy piece of land to work with. From the time you tee off over a small brook and a snaggly rough area to the splendid finishing hole, a par-4, 339-yard test requiring a carry over water, you will be tested — there are plenty of fall-offs and places to get into deep trouble.
Yet the beauty of the site — with ski trails snaking down Mount Mansfield in the distance — continues to astonish as the course climbs from the first tee through woodlands and over hills of the valley. So it hardly matters: just breathe deeply and enjoy being on the top of the world.

Stowe has an extensive practice range along with the highly regarded Vermont Golf Academy. In addition to a spa, hiking and biking, visitors can enjoy the Alpine Slide, gondola rides and a climbing wall. Lodging options include The Stowe Mountain Lodge, Inn at the Mountain and surrounding condominiums.

“I thought there’d be a lot more sidehill lies,” said one player as he walked along No. 18, looking forward to a brew and pulled pork sandwich on the terrace of Willie Dunn’s Grille at Okemo Valley Golf Club. But in spite of its mountain setting, Okemo’s course architect, Steve Durkee, has terraced his track along the slopes below the resort’s ski trails so that it plays more like a heathland course.

Several holes feature dramatic drops on one side and steep slopes on the other, along with plenty of dips and swales, feathery golden fescue roughs, bunker-protected greens and stands of trees. Still fairways are for the most part wide, providing generous landing areas.

Okemo is more contained than typical mountain courses. Five 3-pars including No. 17, a little gem playing over a pond, reward those who hit the dance floor but can spell disaster for those who don’t.

Looking for gravitas? Try No. 12. Two carries over water, wetlands on the right and a deceptive downhill slope running mainly right to left provide impressive risk-reward potential. Still, Okemo is not designed to beat anyone up.

The on-site learning center offers a variety of instructional programs on its 18-acre facility. The practice facilities offer 11 practice bunkers, driving range, four greens, pitching range and a three-hole performance course. Nearby accommodations include the Inn, the Adams House and the Bixby House in Jackson Gore Village, Kettle Brook, Okemo Mountain Lodge, Okemo Village, Solitude Village and Winterplace.

Host to six LPGA events, Vermont’s Stratton Mountain Resort lies in the heart of the Green Mountains. Each of Stratton’s three nine-hole courses — Mountain, the hardest and most dramatic; Forest, the shortest; and Lake, the flattest and easiest — has its own challenges. Wild shooters will have plenty of opportunities to kick a few sticks around.

The 22-acre Stratton Golf University designed by Arnold Palmer has been providing quality instruction to golfers since 1969. This summer brings a new partnership with the David Leadbetter Golf Academy — five-day Junior Summer Swing camps and two- and three-day mini-schools for adults. Hole up at the Inn at Stratton Mountain, which is within walking distance of the golf facilities, or Founders Lodge, as well as condos and residences, always a good bet for groups.