WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — There's no better place than Kingsmill to take a trip back to 1607.
414 years ago, settlers landed for the very first time at what is now Hole 17. On the shores where settlers first touched soil on what would eventually become America, golfers consider what club to use, but what were those settlers thinking? Where pros toss grass to the wind, testing direction, settlers once blew up onto the coast, wondering what waited in an undiscovered land.
"We got fish here, we got ducks coming in, we can live in this area," said Craig Libhart. As one of 5,000 daily fans at the Pure Silk, he isn't wrong.
Despite the livable acres, the settlers wanted better access to the shipping channel, which is why they eventually settled for good at Jamestown. Of course, that original landing area would eventually become Kingsmill resort.
"We've come here a number of times, come to Williamsburg a number of times, we love this tournament, just the beauty of it," says Fred Belchikoff, referencing an entire city drenched in history.
During the Revolutionary War, Kingsmill was used as a defensive position to defeat the British. Fast forward 150 years and this hole was a sought-after piece of land in the Civil War.
But take a settler, or a revolutionary, or a colonizer and drop them at today's Pure Silk Championship, Ronald Flowers thinks there might be some confusion
"I don't think they thought about golf courses back then," he guesses.
The golfers today walk in the footsteps of settlers, revolutionaries, and soldiers. They walk by first landings and fights for freedom, but one thing remains from eras past:
"It's a beautiful day, the weather couldn't be any better," says Libhart. The settlers immediately deemed the new land "paradise," I think it's safe to say they landed on a day like today.