Sankaty Head

Sankaty Head Golf Club dates back to 1923 and it owes its existence to David Gray – former partner of Henry Ford – who donated a clubhouse and 280-acres to the new Sankaty Head Golf Club.

Sankaty Head – derived from an Indian word meaning highland – is located on the eastern shore of Nantucket Island and the Atlantic Ocean wraps around the 90-foot bluff providing panoramic coastal views. The famous Sankaty Head lighthouse provides a fascinating focal point, especially on the front nine.

Golf has been played in these parts since 1894 at the nearby Old Siasconset golf course, so it seems fitting that a local “Sconset” lad, Emerson Armstrong, who was also the Old Siasconset club champion, designed the golf course at Sankaty Head. "Skip" Wogan added bunkers in 1925 and minor revisions were later made by A.W. Tillinghast.

One of the few examples of links-style golf outside of Britain & Ireland, Sankaty Head Golf Club has honourable traditions much more akin to the greatest golf clubs on the other side of the Atlantic.

The Sankaty Head Caddy Camp dates back to the late 1930s and is one of the few remaining caddy camps in the world. The camp is located close to the 11th hole and aspiring caddies from far and wide come to learn the trade. But staying at the Sankaty Head caddy camp is risky business and caddies should beware of the ghost of Twitchy Bungus. We can’t verify the ghostly haunts of Twitchy Bungus so we’d love to hear from anyone who knows more about the infamous Sankaty Head ghoul.

Jim Urbina, Tom Doak’s longest serving associate at Renaissance Golf Design, completed a restoration project on the course alongside greenkeeper C.J. Penrose in 2017, removing obtrusive trees, repositioning tee boxes, rebuilding eroded bunkers and enlarging putting surfaces to their original green size. If anything, this little links-like jewel located thirty miles out to sea on Nantucket Island now shines as brightly as the Sankaty Head Lighthouse.