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Edgartown Golf Club
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Photography by George Peet
We headed east a few miles to play nine before the sun went down, and ended up in the happy embrace of the Edgartown Golf Club.
In making the arrangements, the only thing we had been told about Edgartown was that “it’s like Shinnecock, only nine holes,” but this came from the resident manager of 16 years, Mark Hess, so we thought it might be something of a stretch.
Not really. As soon as the course comes into view, so does half of Martha’s Vineyard and a good chunk of Chappaquiddick, which can set the heart of a first-time visitor aflutter…you know the feeling: sweaty palms, feet that can’t stand still…anyone around here have a cigar? Let’s tee it up!
We were on top of the world, looking down on a creation that was inspired by St. Andrews after a visit by islander Cornelius S. Lee, who, in 1926, bought the Capt. Chase Pease Farm from Fred Sayer and hired a green keeper named Bror Hogland to help design and build the beginnings of a golf course for an opening the following summer, according to a club history.
Ooops. Someone forgot to tell Lee that part of the reason the farm sold for $18,000 was a hidden deal between Sayer and a farmer named Orin Norton, who held a two-year lease to graze his cows on the land, but settled for a $400 payout after the founders determined that a fence was too expensive. The place is quaint that way, fully in touch with its humble roots.
What Edgartown has retained (that Shinnecock Hills has probably lost forever) is a feeling of comfort that comes from playing an obscure (relatively speaking) old horse-ploughed links with no airs about it and few modern intrusions. Yes, there are electric carts, but, no, cellphones are not allowed on the property “except for that area behind the locker room.”
Considering the low-key clubhouse, a Hodgson portable erected for $1,200 in 1927, it is not hard to imagine a couple of Suffragettes sneaking around that same corner to the leeside of the locker room for a furtive smoke and to plot their next move on equal rights. Incidentally, the Hodgson hasn’t been portable since the hurricane of 1944, and now features a handsome new porch dubbed “Lee’s Lookout.”
Connie Lee’s love for the game began as a young player and eventually led to a 20-year association with the USGA as its secretary. He started Edgartown when his club in Oak Bluffs decided to go public, and ended up spending the next 35 years as the linchpin of an organization that is now fully owned by its 170 members, with a waiting period for membership pegged at 20 years.
Lee also helped to create an atmosphere of community good works that goes well beyond the priceless buffer between the town and the sound, by supporting local boys and girls with jobs, scholarships and access to the course. Edgartown is hard to join, but most accommodating when it comes to the island residents who don’t mind playing off-peak hours, both juniors and adults.
Hess clearly enjoys giving credit to those who came before him and created this lasting impression on the local scene, and the legacy that is being passed on, very much a family-style operation. After making sure we had everything we needed in the way of sustenance and course knowledge, he walked us to the first tee, and explained that players finishing the front nine had the right-of-way at No. 1, which doubles as No. 10, although each has its own green.
The tee box area is in the middle of the hilltop peak overlooking practically the entire course, and it does triple duty, with the back half used for the par 3 sixth, going in the other direction. That was the first hole played in 1927. That part of the tee, however, does not double as the tee for 15. It has its own box 43 yards closer and to the left, a very different shot to the same green.
Usually, when you play 18 at a nine-hole course, you’re basically going around twice, right? Edgartown is different. The total yardages both come in around 2800, but on a hole-to-hole basis, there can be a 100-yard difference between the first and second loop, with different pars, too.
You start out with a downhill drive to a wide fairway framed by thick rough, tall fescue and, look at that, who knew there was a pond left of the green?
One mistake that should be avoided here, based on my experience, is replacing the lost ball with a brand new one; the No. 2 drive is among the most challenging on the island, with big water left and big roughage right, and, at 492 yards, ample opportunities to lose another one here. You wouldn’t think they needed to introduce water to a course that hugs the shore, but there it is again – anybody see a splash?
No. 5 reminded us of the knothole drive at Cotuit Highground, only longer, and blind to the green, just a peek through a mid-air opening in the trees to a slanted fairway that climbs toward a flagstick surrounded by deep bunkers. At 268 yards, it is one of the shortest par 4’s around, but by no means one of the easiest.
After the par 3 No. 6, the course heads back down toward the saltwater with the par 4 No. 7 measuring 319 yards, trees right, tall grass left, and four bunkers guarding the little green, with thick stuff in back.
Here, in the creeping darkness on the edge of Edgartown, the landscape architecture of the golf course is at its best in blending with the natural surroundings, as if they were meant for each other, the lush green grass hugging the tree-line down a gentle slope to the tall yellow marsh reeds, the saltwater backdrop interrupted only by a barrier beach on the horizon.
This is the view from the tee at No. 8, the signature hole, 180 yards (or 285 the second time around) to a green on the water’s edge, a downhill shot that requires precision and a good feel for the wind, or else. As ridiculous as it sounds, No. 17 can play easier than No. 8 despite the extra 105 yards, depending on the conditions and your own particular swing flaw, if it’s a tendency to lose the club and thus the ball to the right.
Regardless, it is among the most beautiful settings in golf, and it could stand alone as a hole that you could play over and over and over again, without ever getting tired of the vistas and variables, a microcosm of the Edgartown experience.
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