The Kittansett Club was the brainchild of Frederic Hood, the owner of a Massachusetts rubber company and a board member of the USGA Green Section. In the early 1920s, along with a small group of prominent Bostonians, Hood helped to purchase a property on a peninsula jutting into Buzzard’s Bay, near the base of Cape Cod. Hood first tried to interest Donald Ross in the project but ultimately hired William Flynn to design Kittansett’s course. With the help of frequent collaborator Hugh Wilson, Flynn created an 18-hole routing that started at Butler Point, wound northward through marshland and forest, and made its way back, in linksy fashion, to an 18th green adjacent to the first tee. Hood oversaw construction, faithfully executing Flynn’s plans.
Over the next 50 years, Kittansett evolved away from its original form, adding trees and simplifying bunker and green shapes. In 1995, the club hired Gil Hanse, then just starting his career as a solo architect, to turn the clock back to the 1920s. Hanse’s firm has chipped away at this project ever since, and today Kittansett closely resembles what Flynn designed and Hood put in the ground a century ago.
{{content-block-course-profile-kittansett-club-001}}
Take Note…
Provenance. For much of Kittansett’s history, most sources credited the course design primarily to Frederic Hood. Some even highlighted Donald Ross’s connection to the project over William Flynn’s contributions. That narrative took a hit in the early 2000s, when plans bearing Flynn’s name for 12 of Kittansett’s 18 holes were discovered. These drawings essentially matched what Hood and his construction team built, making clear that Flynn deserved top billing for Kittansett’s architecture. A good resource for understanding these historical nuances is Wayne Morrison’s 2,517-page (!) Flynn biography The Nature Faker.
Be warned. Unsurprisingly, Kittansett’s low-lying seaside property is susceptible to storm surges. A sign near the seventh tee commemorates four times the course has flooded—in 1938, 1944, 1954, and 1991—and notes that the highest water level occurred on August 31, 1954, during Hurricane Carol. The sign is featured on the back of a t-shirt sold in the pro shop. I bought one, obviously.
Fairway interruptus. On eight of Kittansett’s non-par 3s, the fairway stops just after the tee-shot landing zone and starts again at the approach to the green. Wayne Morrison wrote in The Nature Faker that William Flynn “considered this a modern design feature and was influenced by Pine Valley Golf Club.” I suspect that the fairway breaks were also meant to lighten mowing requirements and provide drainage on a flat, low-lying, seaside site where moving water has always been a challenge.
A windy-season option. Kittansett’s out-and-back routing has a junction in the middle where the 14th green, 15th tee, fifth green, and sixth tee all sit. This allows for a few alternative routings, including a formally recognized nine-hole loop that starts with Nos. 10-14 and finishes with Nos. 6-9. Since most of these holes are sheltered from the wind by trees, members often play this sequence on cold, blustery days.
Little Marion. Just down the road from Kittansett is Marion Golf Club, a public, affordable nine-holer designed by a young George Thomas in 1904. A group of Kittansett members recently took control the course’s operations and have engaged Gil Hanse for a potential future renovation. If this project comes to fruition, we hope Hanse uses as light a touch as he has at Kittansett; Little Marion’s rough-hewn simplicity is part of its charm.
{{content-block-course-profile-kittansett-club-002}}
