When Tom Williamsen joined Musgrove Mill two decades ago, it was a secluded haven for mostly local golfers. Twice a year, Williamsen and his wife, Faye, would make the six-and-a-half-hour drive from their northwestern Virginia home, bags packed for a week long stay. Williamsen says they looked forward to the quiet escape: “When you play the golf course, you don’t see any houses and you don’t see a road. The only thing you see out there are turkey and deer. Because they have cottages and rooms in the clubhouse, when we go, we park the car and don’t ever leave the property.”
Now the couple have raised their grown children, Erik and Kaaren, and Williamsen has retired from his position as a Lutheran pastor. Always an avid golfer, the game is now his full-time focus. He serves on the Golf Digest rating panel, a group of about 1,000 golfers nationwide who visit courses year-round to rate them for the magazine’s annual Top 100 list of best places to play. With dozens of courses under his belt, Williamsen says Musgrove Mill is still his favorite. “The golf course is unique,” he says. “You don’t play it and think, ‘Oh, this is great, and it sort of reminds me of this golf course or that golf course.’ It stands alone.”
Now, the couple have traded in their week long biannual vacations for more frequent weekend jaunts. If Faye is unable to join, Tom plugs into the “close-knit community” of members, specifically a group of “golf nuts” he’s gotten to know well over the years. And he’s sure to spend time with the Musgrove Mill staff, whom he now considers friends. “I’ve known Jeff Tallman for 30 years now and he’s the best golf pro I’ve ever had,” Williamsen says. “I always go down and talk to Deborah in the kitchen. The employees down there are just phenomenal.”
As Musgrove Mill continues to garner acclaim, Williamsen reports that it has maintained every bit of secluded local charm. “You’re out in this pristine wilderness. A retreat is exactly what it is. It’s just a ball"