We hate leaves.

Dotting our green fairways and our green greens, they conceal our game, and, frustratingly, they disrupt it. You’ve heard the cries. Has anyone seen my ball? Did you get eyes on my shot that, I swear, went right down Center Ave.? Foliage, too, acts as golf’s last call as summer turns to fall, before giving way to cold, golf-less winter, the thought being: You don’t have to leave (pun partially intended) but you can’t golf here.   

It’s all melancholy — unless the surrounding leaves are so beautiful, so breathtaking, so scenic, that it feels as if someone dropped you into a painting colored by the entire crayon box, and you no longer care about the negatives, because the positives electrify.

All of which is how you feel at Green Mountain National. Or at least I do.  

But wait, there’s more, he says in his commercial-announcer voice. It’s a bit of a steal, too. By now, you’ve maybe seen our list wonderfully headlined “America’s best golf courses for $100 or less: Where memorability meets affordability,” along with some of my colleagues’ odes to the selections, and pulling back the curtain on how we operate here, I jumped when I saw Green Mountain, located in Killington, Vt., among our list. And why?

Because it’s purdy. 

It’s a challenge, too. Hole 2 is a favorite. It’s a dogleg-right par-4. Blind tee shot. Water to the right of the green. Hole 6 is another good one. It’s a split-fairway par-5. No. 7 is a downhill par-3. So is the 13th. Those are fun. The par-4 finisher asks for accuracy, as do mostly all of the holes, because Green Mountain is carved through the Green Mountains’ trees. Spray one left or right, and you’re cooked.        

But around this time every year, those trees come to life, as their leaves expire. I can write only so much flowery poise, though. Have a look at this video, from Brown Golf Management. 

Or look at this video, from Golf Destination. 

Or look at this slideshow, shot by me in August of 2020, which is slightly before color-changing season, but there’s landscape sexiness nonetheless. 

A word quick on those photos above. Some disclosure. 

See that date? At that time, we’d been in the height of the pandemic, and my wife and I spent a few nights among the Green Mountains in central Vermont — where we were treated like a king and queen, in a virus friendly kind of way. The warmness stuck. As did the craft beer selection. (You know that would squeeze its way into a story written by me. On that note, Long Trail Brewery is just about 15 minutes away, and if you also like views with your food and beer, you’re in for a bonanza.)   

So naturally, Green Mountain would have a soft spot. We’ve been back now a handful of times, when, I’m here to report honestly, I couldn’t find a few balls. 

Green Mountain National will do that to you. 

Damn you, pretty leaves. 

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Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.