Upgrades for The Balsams and Mount Washington Resort

Two of New Hampshire's Grande Dame White Mountain resorts are about to receive facelifts that would make Donald Ross smile. Renovations are underway at The Balsams, pocketed in craggy Dixville Notch, and The Mount Washington Resort, with its namesake peak crowning the Presidential Range as a backdrop.

Both may be best known for their ski areas, but there's a good reason to visit in the summer, as well (besides the fact that it's warmer). New owners and management are re-gilding these late 19th- and early 20th-century lilies to meet 21st-century expectations. Rooms are being upgraded, facilities enhanced, amenities added, and elegance restored.

In December 2007, the Balsams completed restoring 16,200 square feet including all common areas, social rooms and 7,200 feet of meeting space. Up next is restoration of 110 guest rooms in the Hampshire House wing, constructed in 1917 and still referred to as the "new" wing. Also on the drawing board is a new spa.

At the Mount Washington, which recently completed a $2 million exterior renovation, an addition to the main hotel — comprising 20,000 square feet of meeting space and a full-service 25,000 square-foot spa — is slated to open November 18. A residential community of approximately 1,000 homes and home sites on 900 acres is in the early stages of sales and construction, and planning is progressing on the Village Common, a development of shops, restaurants and accommodations, at the base of the Bretton Woods Ski Area.

Mount Washington's Donald Ross-designed course will reopen August 1 after being restored by Brian Silva to Ross's original design. Making that possible was discovering copies of Ross's original course layouts, sketched on graph paper. "Everything from green sizes to bunker depths was in writing," says Matt Massei, Mount Washington's general manager. "Some features had not been built or changed [in] over 75 years, so Silva took those and brought a lot of features Ross intended back into the golf course."

Massei believes the results will speak for themselves. "The course was good in the past — playable and fun — but from condition to playability, we think we're going to have a championship-level golf course here."

Also getting massaged is Mount Washington's nine-hole Mt. Pleasant course. "Over the next seven years, we'll restore tees, greens and reroute holes," Massei reveals. In 2010, the hotel plans to begin construction of another nine to complement Mt. Pleasant, with a proposed opening in 2011. Also planned are a practice facility, golf school and camps to complement current offerings.

The challenging Donald Ross Panorama course at the Balsams required no updates. "We have a museum-piece golf course that doesn't need design changes to maintain," says PGA Director of Golf Doug Ruttle. What's needed, he says, is improved service and programming designed to excite people about the game. One new offering is a "Putt and Stretch" program located right outside the hotel's front door. "I'm doing anything I can to open eyes, to introduce hotel guests to golf," he says.

"[The Coashaukee executive course] is a great little course with tough greens and bunkers. There's a lot of value to playing it," Ruttle says. It's also a far gentler introduction to the game than the Panorama course, which, he admits, "doesn't lend itself to beginners. It looks flat on the first tee, like it will lull you to sleep, but there's hardly a flat patch on it. The 18th rises 250 feet from tee to green; it's one of the toughest finishing holes in New England."

Ruttle also believes females are underrepresented on the course, so approximately 30 percent of the planned programming at the resort's new Coashaukee Golf Learning Center will target women. He also recently hired Abby Spector as director of instruction. The former Tarheel and seven-time Maine champion was LPGA bound when she underwent emergency heart surgery in October of 2003. Spector, now 27 and a PGA apprentice, plans to begin her new role at the resort in May.

Think of her as just another great reason to head north this summer.