Course of the Week: The Princess Anne CC

By Joelle Harms| June 24, 2014

The Princess Anne Country Club, in Virginia Beach, Va., was established in 1916 and features a par 70, 6,042-yard course lined with pines, inlets and lakes.

The course was established in 1920 with ties to Willie Park Jr., according to Matt Boyce, Princess Anne CC’s superintendent.

With the close of the U.S. Open just days ago, Boyce reflects on his time as a crewmember/assistant superintendent at Pinehurst No. 2 for both the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens. Between his two stints at Pinehurst No. 2, he was the assistant superintendent at Pinehurst No.4. Boyce started out working on golf courses in high school and has been at Princess Anne CC for eight years.

“[I] pursued Sports Medicine and found out it wasn’t for me, then went on to Penn State and, eventually, the work force,” Boyce says.

Boyce has been a member of the Golf Course Superintendent Association (GCSAA) for 19 years and has been a past president, vice president, secretary and treasurer for Virginia GCSA. He also belongs to the Virginia Turfgrass Council and Tidewater Turfgrass Association.

Princess Anne CC was most recently renovated by Tim Liddy in 2007 and reopened on May 17, 2008. Recent research shows it was one of the first courses crafted and built with a residential neighborhood as part of the master plan, according to Boyce.

The course is just over 6,000 yards from the tips and sits just two blocks from the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. “We can see the water from the front door,” Boyce says.

Like many others dealing with the repercussions of the Polar Vortex, Boyce says the course’s summer has been average so far.

“We just feel we’re about three weeks behind from a long winter,” Boyce says. “Spring has been about catching up and recovering from winter. We’re hoping Mother Nature compensates us for a long winter with a mild summer.”