Yet hardy stands of white pine, oak, cedar and tupelo frame the inland holes, creating a extremely stout test when it comes to driving the ball between the trees, over and around these myriad crossing features, and amid a random collection of chocolate drops. Kittansett. The Kittansett Club, a private golf club that fronts the ocean on Kittansett Point, off Point Road, is also located in a flood plain. For me, it ended up being the highlight of my entire Boston trip. Ive heard that before the trees were removed you could be standing on 16 and 17, which come back towards the water on 3, and you wouldnt even be able to see the bay. The approach here is fairly straightforward with bunkers on either side about 60 yards short of this green and three guarding both sides of the green. To prepare that area for shaping and seeding, workers felled vast numbers of trees and dug up their stumps. Kittansett Club Team Growth. This integrated piece appeared as a course feature and Walker Cup sidebar in LINKS Magazine during the summer of 2006. Kittansett is the only golf course on Hoods resume; he never designed nor built another. Donald Cherry was a Cup newcomer but didnt look particularly green in winning his singles match 9 and 7 over Norman Drew. In a recent letter to Selectmen, resident Annie Rockwell, of Parlow Mill Farm Road, asked Selectmen to stop the practice of dual and questionable appointments. The opening holes provide wide fairways with generous landing areas. The 1953 Walker Cup, on the other hand, is easily the biggest thing ever to hit The Kittansett Club, one of New Englands most revrered if serially under-exposed golf venues. The eye-catching hazard sits well short of a flamboyant green cleaved by a deep swale but all this is obscured by the bunkers 7 foot lip. Featuring a crossbunker on the left at 170 yards and dense forest down the left, this difficult teeshot causes many golfers to bailout right, leaving a more difficult approach possibly blocked out by trees. The Walker Cup competition began in 1922 as matches between amateur golfers from Great Britain and the United States. Briggs lawyer, Robert Troy of Troy Wall Associates in Sandwich, used the Rule of Necessity in arguing Briggs case before the state Ethics Commission. Visit https://get.webgl.org to verify that your browser and hardware support WebGL. 16 that was fashioned in the thickly forested land that made up the interior part of the track. The Kittansett Club opens with the two longest par fours on the course. Bushnell Ion Elite Review: A Solid $200 GPS Golf Watch, Sun Mountain Mid Stripe Golf Bag: A New Player in Luxury Bag Market. Venturi, 22, was the baby in the group but his form was perhaps the best of all. 12 and 13. With its spectacular views and challenging golf, a round at Kittansett is a truly memorable experience. As I mentioned, I expected the whole course to be like this, but I enjoyed the changing environment throughout which weaves from open seaside, into the coastal forest, and back out again to finish the round. Rather than allocating more time and money to removing the rocks from the property, they used them to create mounds that in time were grassed over and employed as strategic hazards, much like the famed chocolate drops at Myopia Hunt Club north of Boston. Briggs, 60, owns Sherman E. Briggs Excavating, a business which has performed excavating work for Tabor Academy in Marion for more than 20 years. Friday 8:45PM . Briggs maintains that he voted under the Rule of Necessity, which is a Common Law construction that may be used when a public body is legally required to act on a matter due to members being disqualified by conflict of interest. Thankfully, nobody had messed with the design or routings of the original holes. Kittansett's beautiful clubhouse and the 18th green You get a real feel for the wind on the exposed range. It makes for an extra special moment on 16 when you come out of the trees and out towards the water and the 3rd hole. Its a fun all-or-nothing hole, and is certainly one of the highlights of the round. Actor Bill Murray enjoyed dinner at a Massachusetts seafood restaurant over the weekend, posing for photos with staff and fans. Nober signed the agreement May 2. We played at 2pm on a Monday afternoon the week after they aerated the course. At 505 yards, the 7th is the first and best par 5 youll encounter at Kittansett. The keen golfer was said to be very knowledgeable about course architecture, thanks largely to trips he had taken with his sticks to the British Isles. Apparently overgrown trees behind this green obscured the view, but Gil Hanse removed them in the 1990s. Designed by William Flynn and Frederic Hood in 1922 (it was restored by architect Gil Hanse in 1998), Kittansett was not particularly well known prior to the 53 Walker Cup. This drive requires a carry of 145 yards and avoidance of dense marshes on the right. For decades, the layout was regarded as the creation of one of the clubs charter members, a local rubber company magnate named Frederic C. Hood. Theres another bunker 100 yards short and on either side of this small circular green. I can only hope one day Ill have the opportunity to return and experience it again. That prompted us to restore them to their original sizes. And theres a good chance driver will be too much and take you through the fairway. But the fact is, we hate losing. Using it for golf as well would make it more cost-effective. (LogOut/ document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2012-2022 Location 180, LLC | All rights reserved. He was the maternal grandfather of PresidentGeorge H. W.Bush and great-grandfather of PresidentGeorgeW. Bush. Go further to the right and youll have the best angle in towards the green, but be more likely to catch the 3rd mound. Find contact info for Kittansett Club employees Find Info Top Kittansett Club Employees James Burns General Manager. True All Day Pants Review: Damn Good (Golf) Pants. By all accounts, Murrays interactions with fans at Turks Seafood on Sunday were nothing but positive. The British are supposed to be good losers, Duncan said at Saturday nights trophy presentation ceremony, since theyve had plenty of practice at it. There are plenty of good, talented folks in Marion who dont have conflicts. Playing from the whites, most golfers should have no trouble clearing the center-line bunkers, but they certainly make you second-guess your line. An 18-hole golf course became a possibility when in the early 1920's a group of residents bought the land on Butler's Point, which until that time had been occupied solely by the Beverly Yacht Club. One particularly devastating bunker is a crossbunker that juts onto the left fairway about 100 yards short of the green. Kittansett Club has great variety in its routing. KITTANSETT CLUB MARION, MA 02738-1906 | Tax-exempt since May 1947 EIN: 04-2035017 Nonprofit Tax Code Designation: 501 (c) (7) Defined as: Social and recreational clubs. The layout is quite varied with about half the holes lining the marshes and ocean and other half playing inland off the water. Then, there were the angles with which Flynn endowed so many of the holes. The Succession actor has yet again voiced support for J.K. Rowling in the wake of controversy surrounding the author's transphobic comments. Tee Par Yardage Rating Slope, Blue 71 6934 75.0 145, White 71 6400 71.9 139, White/Green 71 6029 70.0 132, Green 71 5581 67.9 130, Yellow 72 4934 71.0 133. From the back tee, 241 yards away, the tiny exposed portion of the putting surface appears to sit precariously (and inaccessibly) at the edge of the world, 15 feet above a bunker bounded by ball-sucking bogs. So my good friend joined The Kittansett Club this year and Ive been lucky enough to play about a dozen rounds there. Among the first groups to play the new track included 1913 U.S. Open champion Francis Ouimet, who joined Kittansett soon after as an honorary member. When I visited in late June, a wind-killing fog (thick enough to cancel the first day of the 2006 U.S. Womens Open down the coast at Newport) had settled over the place. With the U.S. Senior Amateur visiting Butler Point this week, it seemed a fine time to place this story above the fold.]. The locker room is surprisingly small, but it fits the quaint atmosphere of the club. We didnt play on a particularly windy day, but I imagine these two holes rarely play the scorecard yardage. Opened for play in 1923, Kittansett and its various attributes should surprise visitors. With further input from R&A Captain Lord Brabazon of Tara, the British managed to persuade USGA Committee members to modify the punishment. MARION, MASSACHUSETTS | Competitors in last weeks Massachusetts Amateur had the pleasure of playing one of the Bay States best golf courses at the Kittansett Club. And with Hanse continuing to act as the clubs architectural consultant, one can be sure that the course at Kittansett will keep getting better. (Credit to this SI article for additional details). Most publications focus on the world-class seaside holes, but I thought the inland holes were almost equally as good, resembling the great heathland courses in England with their sandy soil, whispy fescue, and tall trees. The setting of Kittansett is phenomenal. 18 brings you back to the clubhouse, and again throws off vibes of the opening and finishing holes at Maidstone and Fishers Island. This has to be one of the better and more robust muni systems in America. It is now a much more open course, the sea is visible from many more holes, and the wind has become a significant factor in course management. Seasonal work but enjoyable. (LogOut/ Ward and Charlie Coe were the top international amateurs of their day, and Sam Urzetta, a 51 Walker Cupper, was the 1950 U.S. The course is located in South Newark and is operated by Essex County along with classics Francis Byrne and Hendricks Field. This green is relatively flat, but plays elevated with slopes on all sides. General Comments:Kittansetts clubhouse is understated, but gives off a classic New England summer charm. MARION, MASSACHUSETTS | Competitors in last week's Massachusetts Amateur had the pleasure of playing one of the Bay State's best golf courses at the Kittansett Club. Had the absolute pleasure of waiting on the comedic ICON himself, Bill Murray, McCarthy wrote on Facebook. The Master Plan has been updated on a couple of occasions since Hanse and his longtime design associate, Jim Wagner, first started working at Kittansett. Its a special place, and one its members are extremely lucky to be a part of. Im of the opinion we should have further discussion, Marion Selectman Chairman Steve Cushing said. And in 2016, Murray threw fans cell phones off the roof of a second-story restaurant in Carmel, Calif., after they snapped photos of the actor, according to TMZ. I request that you do not reappoint people with conflicts to committees where those conflicts, at best, keep them from their posts a lot, or at worst, allow them to rule on things they should not, Rockwell wrote. The latest version of the Master Plan was released in 2013, and it involved the moving of mounds on Nos. This fairway bends slightly to the left with marshes on either side. The 5th is a strong straightaway 395 yard par 4 that prominently features two large bunkers in the middle of the fairway between 150 and 180 yards. This eponymous business irked him somewhat in later years; he periodically protested, publicly, that these or any amateur matches had become so closely associated with a particular person. One of those revisions came shortly after the discovery of the Flynn drawings in that Pennsylvania barn. The reachable 330 yard 10th gets my vote for easiest hole at Kittansett. Kittansett was built in the 1920s and juts out on a peninsula directly into Buzzards Bay in Marion, Massachusetts outside of Boston. The 15th is the second of the trio of par 5s on the course. The average employee at Kittansett Club makes $0 per year. Try and clear the bunker on the corner and take on the trees. Briggs said he tried to resolve this issue last summer, but the Ethics Commission kept delaying the process. [Ed. The maps on this site are based on Cesium which in turn is based on WebGL. But taking out the chain saws was not only about bringing back the vistas. As for the largely blind, uphill green, it is protected by bunkers left and right. So does the USGAs decision to stage the U.S. Senior Amateur here in autumn 2022, the year of the clubs centennial. The view from this teebox is world-class, with 390 fantastic yards separating you from the water. Featuring a dazzling set of seaside holes and equally interesting inland holes, an invite to Kittansett is to be cherished. Most days, the approach plays dead into a southwest wind, making the most sensible play a punch shot that bores its way to the putting surface. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. He and Urzetta easily won their foursomes match and the San Franciscan breezed past a beleaguered James Wilson in singles, 9 and 8; Venturis outward round of level-par 70 was the competitions lowest. With a teebox in the middle of a marsh, this is a difficult teeshot with a forced carry of 160 yards and dogleg not coming until 225 yards. A time when the British played one ball (1.62 inches in diameter) and the Americans another (1.68), when all matches were contested over 36 holes, a time when players were ultimately judged by the skill with which they deflected adulation when a point might well be refused if it hadnt been earned in the spirit of fair play. This teebox is directly adjacent to the pro shop and youll almost certainly have a gallery. Had the fortune of playing We-Ko-Pas Saguaro Course last Spring, the first round for me in Arizona. The course layout originated and concluded at the unprotected ocean end of the Point. The clubhouse is perched at the point of the peninsula which has 270-degree views of Buzzards Bay. Because Kittansett is a golf club youre not going to find a pool, tennis, or all of the other amenities that youll typically find at a country club. Sean, great article! The Kittansett Club - Detailed Maps and Yardage Charts - ProVisualizer.com The Kittansett Club Error: The browser supports WebGL, but initialization failed. The Kittansett Club is a private course available only to its members and their guests. I love your content (just found you on YouTube) and wish you the best. 13. Here and there these oversized Kisses (more like chocolate-covered cherries really) reside on a holes periphery, seemingly without purposes. Keep it up! Generation Zero Now Available for Purchase, Late-Nineties Flashback: The Great Maine Golf Course Binge, In Iceland, It Truly Is a Matter of Degree, Generation Zero:The modern Creation epic U.S. soccer didnt know it had, available July 19, Forty-Eight Years Late: Celts, Dubs Redeem an NBA Final That Never Was. The 15th is the longest of a short set of par fives at 515 yards. Par is a tremendous score here. This is certainly one of the easier holes out there and one of several holes on the course that provides the golfer numerous options. The rest, to be believed, must be experienced first-hand. Sometimes, the slants were quite subtle, like those on the par-5 seventh, and No. For the 2022 season they expanded their outdoor bar, which is a fantastic place to have a drink and enjoy the view of both the course and the water. The 5th has one of the more intimidating shots on the course. And we restored a handful of bunkers that had been filled in as we reclaimed parts of several greens that had become smaller as well.. The corridors are naturally ample. This hole is extremely open on the left with the 18th fairway but features a lateral hazard on the right with marshland. The 7th is one of three par 5s on the course, and the bunkering on this hole I found to be notable and forces you to really place your 3 shots well. Four times the State Amateur has been held here; each time it set a record for the number of entries. This approach is fairly straightforward with a narrow green guarded by large bunkers on either side. Bobby Jones, who hadnt attended a Walker Cup in 21 years, was there at Kittansett along with Francis Ouimet, fellow Cup veteran Fred Wright and the estimable Mrs. Edwin S. Vare, Jr., better known as Glenna Collett. Perhaps the best hole on the course is No. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for B Draddy THE KITTANSETT CLUB Blair Half Zip Golf Pullover Logo Blue Large New at the best online prices at eBay! In retrospect, the 1953 Walker Cup was a thoroughly fascinating event, but not necessarily because it served as the coming-out party for Kittansett, for a pair of promising young Californians, Ken Venturi and Gene Littler or because E. Harvie Ward managed in the course of the competition, to avenge his 1952 British Amateur loss to the talented Irishman Joe Carr. Given that the initially wide fairway progressively narrows with swampland on the right, these bunkers force the golfer to think twice about laying up off the tee. Looking back, the interest and intrigue are found in the details. The penalty for this infraction is disqualification, of course, and Grainger invoked it without hesitation. Featuring a dazzling set of seaside holes and equally interesting inland holes, an invite to Kittansett is to be cherished. Known for being an exclusively male club, Augusta recently opened its doors to three. Theres a giant crossbunker about 50 yards short and three deep ones on both sides of the green. The layout, however, also evoked the Old Course in golfs ancestral home of St. Andrews, Scotland, thanks to an out-and-back routing and opening and closing holes that ran parallel to each other. Once again, golfers must determine just how far they want to hit their tee shots and whether they lay up before that obstacle or try to fly it. In 2017, Murray reportedly yelled at people taking photos of him before abruptly departing from a VIP reception that charged $150 for, among other perks, the opportunity to take a photo with the legendary actor, according to the Chicago Tribune. One thing I find most remarkable about the history of Kittansett is that as the decades wore on, the designer of the course was seemingly lost to time. The major defense is undoubtedly the wind, which usually whips off the Ocean, but the layout is also difficult, especially off the tee. But that has to end, say some. 17 is a visually tricky hole, as from the tee it can be tough to know exactly where youre going. (Murray later offered to pay for the damaged phones, so no charges were filed.). The Kittansett Club layout elicited similar praise from competitors and spectators alike. Kittansett has hosted the state amateur four times; each time it set a record for the number of entries. Not even the members, who are used to the carries, the obstacles and the speed of the greens. Because Kittansett is a golf club you're not going to find a pool, tennis, or all of the other amenities that you'll typically find at a country club. That finish of Ronnie Whites made us all proud to be British.. But work still needed to be done. In the 1990s, the team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner restored the course to its original glory by removing trees and renovating bunkers. Found guilty of violating state ethics laws and handed a hefty civil fine earlier this month, Marion Conservation Commission Chairman Sherman Briggs Jr. thinks he should be reappointed to the commission when his term expires, and that this latest turn of events should have no impact on his re-election bid to the town Planning Board. The Americans were still three down after nine but they came home in 33, the best nine posted by any foursome pairing during the competition. The wind had shifted, so while we thought wed be heading back towards the clubhouse with the wind at our back that wasnt the case. You and those before you have made a habit of these tainted appointments for years and years. with Hanse continuing to act as the clubs architectural consultant, one can be sure that the course at Kittansett will keep getting better. Amateur Qualifier held here. Some of the mounds at Kittansett ran down the edges of holes and others diagonally across them. At about 280 yards, rough and a bunker on the left bisect this fairway. When asked what he thinks brought the matter to the attention of the state Ethics Commission, Briggs offered a few theories. Framed by cedar shake houses and the loveliest view of the Atlantic, Kittansett has a special place in the heart of all who visit. Briggs admitted to violating the conflict-of-interest law by voting as a town Conservation Commission member to issue an Order of Conditions authorizing Tabor Academy to install two 2,000-gallon saltwater tanks at its Marine Sciences Center building. Kittansett hosted the 1953 Walker Cup, when an American team that featured Ken Venturi, Bill Campbell, Harvie Ward, Dick Chapman, Gene Littler, Charlie Coe, and other notables routed the GB&I team 9-3. And so Kittansett remains a bit of a mystery guest, even to Bay State golfers. I imagine this hole floods or becomes a true island green when the tide is up. Because of the ever-present winds perhaps, Hoods design rarely calls for forced carries into the greens themselves. Selectman Jon Henry recused himself from the discussion because he does some work for Briggs company from time-to-time. The club was established in 1922, and officially opened for play in 1923. Relative to par, Im not sure theres a more difficult hole than the 11th. The most famous hole at Kittansett comes early in the round in the form of the 167-yard par 3, 3rd hole. Longer hitters can cut the corner over the hills and leave a shorter approach into a back-to-front sloped green. This hole reminds me a lot of the 5th atWannamoisettwith the ideal line playing over mounds at the right corner. The land the new police station sits on was donated by Tabor to the town for the purpose of building a new police station. The British non-playing captain, Lieut. Stay up to date with everything Boston. The other dangers on this teeshot include bunkers on either side at 175 yards and marshland for those who go way offline. As I usually mention when writing about notable golden age courses, I can never do as good of a job recounting the history of the club, as they can. So now we were faced with a 23o yard tee shot into the wind, with a very tricky green. Briggs said he had been doing work for Tabor Academy for 23 years and this was a known fact before he was appointed to Marion Conservation Commission by the then Marion Board of Selectmen. Littler and Jackson were eventually penalized two holes, placing them three down on the fourth tee. in the minutes leading up to your arrival, you can be forgiven for thinking you might be in the wrong place. When we got to the par 3 11th, all we could say was what??. The Kittansett Club 11 Point Rd Marion, MA 02738-1906 View Website EXPLORE THE COURSE MAP Panelists Ratings from our panel of 1,900 course-ranking panelists 4.7 100 GREATEST/BEST IN STATE. One involved pulling stones from the ground, and the other determining what to do with them once they were unearthed. This green generally slopes back-to-front. The oldest public course in New Jersey, Weequahic Golf Course was originally 9 holes built by Baltusrol Pro George Low in 1913. 17, which features cross rough and a wee burn in a depression some 250 yards from the tee. Kittansett differs from vintage fare in this respect as well. For most if not all of us, that includes some very obvious places like Pine Valley, Augusta National, Cypress Point and so on. Events like these culled a few tupelos, to be sure. The parking lot is one of the most scenic in all of golf, occupying prime oceanfront property. Trees had grown up around several of the mounds and made them all but invisible, said Hanse, who credits the Kittansett job as a breakthrough for his young firm as its first top-100 golf course. Named after the Native American term for near the sea, Kittansett opened in 1922, and Hood tinkered with the design for the next several decades. Those who go left or long will find a bunker at 195 yards or worse be OB. 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." Youre driving out on what becomes an increasingly narrow peninsula, but youd never know it. Teeing off on the first hole gives you vibes similar to other old-school seaside courses like Fishers Island or Maidstone. This approach plays to a large, flat green lined by bunkers on either side. More recently, concerted clearing efforts have rendered portions of the routing, especially those holes furthest out on Butler Point, darned links-like surely more open and scenic today than they were when the Hood finished his lifes work. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window). Amateur champion. But the discovery of a trove of documents in a Pennsylvania barn in the early 2000s revealed that the actual designer was William Flynn, one of the masters of the so-called Philadelphia school of architecture and a man whose credits include Pine Valley and Shinnecock Hills. The name is interesting as its a combination of two Native American words meaning near the sea.. Now, thanks to a slow and thoughtful 20-year restoration by Gil Hanse, the course . At a prodigious 220 yards, this is a semi-blind par 3 courtesy of tall fescue directly in front of the teebox. All of the Tri-towns have people on their boards and commissions who serve double duty on other boards and whose businesses sometimes do business with the municipalities they serve. The two Brits urged Pierson not to impose the penalty stipulated by the rules. This has led to significant changes in bunkering, and even more notably, the removal of hundreds of trees that have completely reshaped the look and feel of the course. Designed by myThem.es. Originally only open to high rollers like Shadow Creek, Cascata is now fully public but doesnt receive much play and commands a hefty $400+ pricetag. The fact that Kittansett was the site of the Mass Am last week for the sixth time in its history speaks to the high regard in which the course is held. A charming rock wall and fescue guard just right of the green as well. This hole is notable for a creek that crosses the fairway at 285 yards and bunker just short right of the creek. Since the 1990s the course has gone through a series of redesigns by Gil Hanse, who has been a longstanding consultant with respect to restoration, improvements, and renovations of Kittansett. Membership at the club is strictly invitation only, with initiation fees ranging from $250,000 to $500,000. The setting of the clubhouse is top 10 among the courses Ive visited in my travels. At just 155 yards, this world-famous hole plays directly over the Ocean to an island green surrounded by beach sand. Designer:William Flynn/Frederic C. Hood (1922), Gil Hanse/Jim Wagner (1998, tree removal and bunker renovation). But some 70 years after the clubs founding, in the mid-1990s, its leaders hired Gil Hanse. A cross bunker comes into play from the left on tee shots, and the best move is taking on that hazard with ones drive, keeping the ball on that side of the fairway for a more open approach to the green. You must have JavaScript enabled to fill out this form. 3 sun.com; oracle.com; unionclub.org; 3 617227XXXX; 617227XXXX; 617227XXXX; Steven Mann . Outside of the 1953 Walker Cup, Kittansett has largely stayed out of the national spotlight. Tucked away in a sort of nether region between Cape Cod and the Rhode Island coast, it's widely acknowledged as the second best course in Massachusetts (after The Country Club), though few have actually played it and none passes up a chance. Member Services Representative (Former Employee) - Marion, MA - November 1, 2015. Those thinking of cutting the corner have to contend with tall trees lining the right. As for Hood, he turned out to be more project manager than anything else, overseeing construction of the golf course while adding his own small touches. Having hosted the Walker Cup in 1953, this club has long enjoyed an enviable reputation. About 30 yards short of the green, two cross-bunkers squeeze the fairway, preventing runners from reaching the green. Kittansett hosted U.S. Turks waitress Kimberly McCarthy was one of several at the restaurant who posed for a photo with the actor. Members here bleed the right color and the course itself, perched on Butler Point and surrounded on three sides by Buzzards Bay, is surely transformed by a stiff wind. You should have done this a long time ago. Matt. Beverly's clubhouse was only open for a short portion of the year in general but was actually used only on two weeks of official race days. Founded in 1922, the Kittansett Club is one of the region's most historic private golf clubs, and one of only a few seaside courses in New England. But if a golfer decides instead on the less perilous route down the right, he must then clear a gnarly bunker complex and more grassy mounds to land his second shot onto the putting surface.
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