The golf course at Hyannisport Club was developed by three Scotsman, each a major figure in the early American game. John Reid, the architect of the first three holes at the oldest golf club in the U.S. (Saint Andrews near Yonkers, New York) and one of the founders of the USGA, laid out the initial golf course at Hyannisport in 1897—six holes on a hillside with views of Nantucket Sound. In 1902, Alex Findlay, a contender for the title of “Father of American Golf,” installed a new nine-hole design on additional land that the club had purchased. Then, in 1913, Donald Ross, at the very beginning of his full-time design career, expanded the course to 18 holes. Ross likely continued to advise the club on course changes through the 1910s and 20s, and in 1930 he drew up plans for a longer, more challenging layout, with several holes pressed against Hall’s Creek Estuary. Because of the financial uncertainty created by the Wall Street crash of 1929, Hyannisport held off on implementing Ross’s recommendations until 1936.
After drifting away from its Golden Age roots in the mid-20th century, the club engaged Ron Forse in 1990 to carry out a long-term restoration plan. In several different phases over the past 34 years, Forse has widened playing corridors, restored bunker positions and styles, expanded greens, and recaptured some of Hyannisport’s Ross flavor.
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Take Note…
Camelot’s hideaway. Hyannisport Club is perhaps best known as the summer retreat of the Kennedy family. Joseph P. Kennedy, father of John F. and Robert F., joined in the 1920s after being denied membership at another club because of his Irish Catholic heritage. The Kennedy Compound is located about 500 yards from Hyannisport’s 18th green, and JFK played the course frequently during his presidency. Various scions of the family can be still found recreating at the club during the warm months.
Remnants of Findlay. A handful of Hyannisport’s present-day holes are holdovers from Alex Findlay’s nine-hole layout. One of these is the stunning 16th, a par 5 that plays along the edge of the estuary, up and over a rise, to a low-lying green framed by Nantucket Sound.
A Ross revelation. In August 2021, Donald Ross scholar Sven Nilsen found a Boston Evening Transcript article identifying Ross as the architect behind Hyannisport’s expansion to 18 holes in 1913. Before this discovery, the details of the course’s evolution between Alex Findlay’s 1902 design and Ross’s 1930 redesign had been a mystery. The fact that Ross was involved as early as 1913 is eye-catching: very few extant clubs not named Oakley, Pinehurst, or Essex County can claim an earlier association with the architect.
Five-and-Dime, part two. In what I believe to be the most ambitious single change of Ron Forse’s three-decade tenure at Hyannisport, the second green is currently being moved back and benched into a hillside on the left. The design, inspired by Ross’s 1930 drawings, resembles that of A.W. Tillinghast’s “Five-and-Dime” hole at Ridgewood Country Club—a short par 4, potentially drivable for long hitters, with an elevated, heavily bunkered green offset from the fairway. It’s a smart idea, given that the former second hole was somewhat pedestrian, but the trick will be making the new green feel compatible with the 17 others, almost all of which are low-lying and open-fronted. Alternatively, the club could choose to rebuild the rest of the greens to Ross’s specs, which call for more complex, varied shapes and contours than presently exist, or ever existed, at Hyannisport.
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A Cape day. If you travel all the way to Hyannisport Club, you might as well make a day of it on Cape Cod. The club’s friendly golf staff recommended lunch at Baxter’s Boathouse, a popular Hyannis Port institution that was unfortunately closed when I visited. For a second round of the day, I urge you to drive farther out on the Cape to Highland Links. This rustic nine-holer dates back to 1892 and is draped across sandy seaside bluffs that became part of the federally administered Cape Cod National Seashore in 1961.
