The Kittansett Club

William Flynn and Fred Hood should each receive equal credit for the course at The Kittansett Club (native Indian for “near the sea”) which opened for play in 1922. Flynn provided the routing plan and Hood built the course and continued to "tweak" the layout for the next 20 years. The course is situated at the end of Butler Point which extends into Buzzards Bay. Its location offers spectacular views and challenging shot making in the ever-changing wind.

Only third in stature in the state of Massachusetts to The Country Club and Old Sandwich, Kittansett hosted the Walker Cup in 1953 when USA beat Great Britain & Ireland 9-3. The course was restored in the late 1990s by Gill Hanse who recaptured many of the original features that had been eroded over the decades. Hundreds of trees were removed for two reasons – first to reveal grassed over mounds alongside fairways, and second, to improve visibility of the Bay. Some disused bunkers were brought back into play and others were rebuilt to their original size and composition.

The signature hole is the 3rd, a 165-yard par three, which is an island hole requiring a tee shot that carries sand and water to reach the putting surface. The small green can be easily missed from the tee (especially if the wind is unkind and takes a tee shot offline) leaving the golfer with a recovery shot from the beach – if the tide is out!

Darius Oliver, in this short extract from the book Planet Golf USA, writes: “Enjoying scenic outlooks across the water to Cape Cod, Kittansett is a lovely setting for golf and the ever-changing nature of its holes ensure that a round here is constantly engaging. Somewhat reminiscent of a place like Humewood in South Africa, the course isn’t quite in the same league as the best from Britain, but it does rest comfortably among the premier seaside layouts in this part of the world.”