The Season · 2026
The calendar, kept.
From Opening Day in May to the Twelfth Night supper in January — the standing engagements of the Ridgemont year.
2026
The season's engagements
Reservations open to the membership thirty days before each engagement through the Club Office. Attire is noted as it is observed — the club is precise about very few things, and dress is one of them.
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11Apr 2026Club casual
The Masters Breakfast
Country ham biscuits, spoon bread, and the back nine on the big screen — the standing Saturday of Masters week, held since 1978. The Grille's sweepstakes draw is at eight sharp; a member's guest may hold one ticket.
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23Apr 2026Jacket required
The Cellar Table — Spring in the Rhône
Thomas Okafor's monthly cellar dinner: five courses from Chef Fontaine against six wines of the northern Rhône, including the 1999 from the club's Cornas arrangement. Eight seats at the table; the waitlist is honored in order.
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3May 2026Garden attire
The Point-to-Point Picnic
Blankets and hampers along the meadow rail for the Keswick point-to-point, with the club's own race — the Ridgemont Plate — as the fourth on the card. Children's sack races between the fifth and sixth.
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16May 2026Black tie optional at dinner
Opening Day & the Whitfield Cup
The season opens as it has since 1914: the Captain drives in at eight, the field follows in foursomes, and the Whitfield Cup is settled over eighteen holes of better-ball. Luncheon on the terrace; the silver is presented at four by the President of the Board.
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25May 2026Club casual
Memorial Day at the Pools
The pools open for summer with the traditional cannonball contest at noon — judged, with great solemnity, by the lifeguard staff — and the grille terrace serving until dusk.
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5Jun 2026Garden attire
The Softshell Supper
When the Bay allows, the club sets one long table on the terrace for softshell crabs almondine, cold Virginia viognier, and strawberry shortcake to finish. Seating is capped at one hundred and goes by the book.
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20Jun 2026Whites
The Midsummer Croquet Invitational
Sixteen pairs contest the Whitfield Mallet under association rules, whites required, the lawn at its Monday finest. Pimm's at the pavilion from noon; the final is played at four and is, by long custom, silent.
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4Jul 2026Club casual
Independence Day at the Pools
Field games at ten, the raft race at two — lanes out, chaos in — fried chicken at noon, and fireworks over the lower meadow at dark. The club has fired them from the same rise since 1964.
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18Jul 2026Golf attire
The Member–Guest
Two days, five nine-hole matches, and the shootout on Saturday evening in front of the terrace. The Calcutta dinner Friday night in the Grille; the champions' names go on the locker room board.
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8Aug 2026Club casual
The Children's Regatta
Model sailboats built through July's Saturday workshops race across the pond, the commodore's cup going to the fastest hull — and the consolation, by long custom, to the most beautiful sinking.
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22Aug 2026Garden attire
The Tomato Dinner
Six courses in the garden itself, every plate built on the August tomato at its absolute height — a dinner the kitchen will cook on no other date, in no other place.
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12Sep 2026Club casual
The Vance Cup — Club Tennis Championship
The finals of the club championship, played on the stadium court since 1963. Strawberries and cream at the changeovers, champagne for the finalists, and the draw board posted in the Grille all week.
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26Sep 2026Golf attire
The Caddie Day Scramble
Members carry and caddies play — the one round of the year the yard walks inside the ropes. Supper afterward in the Grille, with the caddie scholarship fund's raffle drawn at eight.
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10Oct 2026Black tie
The Harvest Ball
The club's evening of evenings, held every October since 1921: the Whitfield Room by candlelight, the Charlottesville Symphony Octet in the Ballroom, and dancing until one. The founding families' table is kept by the hearth, as always.
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24Oct 2026Golf attire
The Whitfield Cup Finals
The season-long match-play championship reaches its thirty-six-hole final, the field walking with the last two standing. The cup is filled on the eighteenth green; the new champion's plaque is hung in the Grille by supper.
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14Nov 2026Club casual
The Beaujolais Luncheon
The new vintage arrives the third Thursday of November; the club drinks it the following Saturday with country pâté, roast chicken, and no speeches whatsoever.
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26Nov 2026Jacket required
Thanksgiving at the Club
The kitchen's largest day: turkey and oyster dressing, spoon bread, the whole of the November garden, and pies by the hundred. The course closes at noon; the dining room is full by one.
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12Dec 2026Club casual
The Wassail & Tree Lighting
The great spruce on the forecourt is lit at dusk to the Keswick School choir; wassail and cider doughnuts in the Grille after. The youngest member present throws the switch — a duty taken in strict rotation since 1958.
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17Dec 2026Black tie optional
Five Decades of Claret
The standing December dinner at the Cellar Table: five courses against clarets of 1970, 1982, 1990, 2000, and 2010. Eight seats; the list for 2027 opens when the 2026 table rises.
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6Jan 2027Jacket required
The Twelfth Night Supper
The season's closing word: roast goose, the bean in the cake, and the club's officers for the coming year read from the minutes by the Secretary, as they have been since 1914.
No engagements match your selection — the season is broad; try another month or pursuit.
Standing Customs
The things that simply happen
Beyond the printed calendar, the club keeps a quieter schedule the membership knows by heart: Sunday supper in the Grille from Memorial Day to Labor Day; the Friday platform-tennis league through the winter; the First Friday tasting in the cellar; and bridge in the Card Room every Wednesday at two, where the same four tables have held their seats for decades.
None of it requires a reservation. All of it requires only that you come.
