Great Golf in SW Rhode Island - The Misquamicut Club - All 18 up

[John Foley]

About a year ago I found myself in Rhode Island and drove down into Watch Hill for the afternoon. Spent some time on the beach then got in the car for a drive and I stumbled across The Misquamicut Club. What you could see from the periphery, it looked pretty cool. Got the laid back summer club, oozing old money sitting on the ocean feel.

Getting back home see what is here on GCA and found limited info (no photo’s also!). Some old threads referenced the early iterations of the course (whom did what) and there has to be a fascinating story about the development history of the course. An early Tom Bendelow, then Willie Anderson  then Seth Raynor  - (5 hole addition - you cannot convince me that 10 is NOT an Alps!!) and finally the Donald Ross course there today.

Fast forward a year and I get a ping from a friend about a charity outing (for a great cause!!) and I set out and grab a spot.

What a great day, the staff was over the top accommodating and friendly – just kept getting the feeling it was a truly special place.

Onto to the course.

Here is the routing.


Hole 1 - 382 yard Par 4

From the tee - Love the rumpled fw


From the LZ


Looking back to the tee


Green site – a little punchbowl-ish


Hole 2 – 433 yard Par 4

From the tee – OB down the left – don’t hit a screaming hook!


From the LZ looking back - Need to get down to the bottom of the hill – hanging up creates a tough 2nd


to the green


green – nice lay of the land green


Hole 3 – 230 yard Par 3

Tee shot is somewhat blind (slightly downhill but @ 230 yards picking out the flag is tough)
Photo taken from the 4th FW - so the line of play is about 45 degrees left of this


Panorama of the green – shots to the left will kick the ball to the right – green his huge with nice movement. Rightside has a drop off and a bunker / mound short

 

Hole 4 – 272 yard Par 4

Cool short / drivable par 4 – short of the bunker on the right w/ a flip wedge is the smart play – green is big with some movement.
Tee Shot – you can barely make out the top of the flag just to the right of the cart path in the distance.



From LZ in the left side rough


Green from the 5th tee.


Hole 5 – 424 yard Par 4

Long par 4 – with a trouble left. Some bunkers & mounds on the right hand side.


Green has a cool back area


Hole 6 – 194 yard Par 3

Long par 3 to a tough green benched into the hillside. As you can see missing left is OB and right is will leave them with a tough up & down. Green has a cool swale that makes getting the ball to the back a tough shot.
Long shot of the hole from the 5th green. Tee is to the left of the shelter.



Green from behind showing the swale



Green from the 7th tee



Hole 7 – 522 yard Par 5

Pretty benign par 5 – miss left of the tee is trouble – left side is wide open.
FW from left of the tee (tree is not really in play)



Green is bunkered short.


Hole 8 – 165 yard Par 3

Favorite par 3 on the course – green is perched on the top (is this a Volcano hole?). Trouble abounds if you miss the green.
From the tee


Looking back from the green


Hole 9 – 359 yard Par 4

Short par 4 where hit a good drive you have a wedge or less in – problem is a great rumpled fairway – tight driving area and a perched green

From the tee




From the LZ





Looking back at the green & FW from the 10th tee


Back 9 will come shortly.

[Niall C]

John

What a fantastic looking golf course. I constantly read on here about American golfers coming over here to the UK to get there fill of quirk and old world charm, well with courses like this I wonder why. Look forward to seeing the rest of the course.

With regards to design attribution, I had Willie Park down as the original designer or did I get that wrong ?

Niall

[michael damico]

John,

thanks for the great pictures. Really looks like something to check out sometime...

[Mark Smolens]

Great pics John, love those par-3s. Definitely looks like a place to get on when I go visit my buddy who coaches the golf team at Brown (they played Newport CC yesterday -- wonder if those kids know what a good deal they have going on for themselves).

[Michael Moore]

John -

I have been waiting for this tour for a long time. Wow. Bring your aerial game. Thank you.

[David_Tepper]

"I constantly read on here about American golfers coming over here to the UK to get there fill of quirk and old world charm, well with courses like this I wonder why."

Niall -

The problem is not that there are not enough interesting and entertaining golf courses that are well worth playing in the U.S. There are plenty of them.

The problem is getting access to those courses. In GB&I, 99% of the golf courses are available to visiting golfers with a phone call, an e-mail or simply by pulling into the parking lot. In the U.S. the vast majority of private courses cannot be accessed unless one is hosted by a member.

DT   

[Tim Gavrich]

What's the deal with the painted dashes inside the edges of the greens?  Are those new proposed green edges?  They're not intentionally shrinking the greens, are they? 

[michael damico]

What's the deal with the painted dashes inside the edges of the greens?  Are those new proposed green edges?  They're not intentionally shrinking the greens, are they? 

that's the way I took it. Guess the mowing lines got alittle out of control for the super?

[K. Krahenbuhl]

What's the deal with the painted dashes inside the edges of the greens?  Are those new proposed green edges?  They're not intentionally shrinking the greens, are they? 

It looks like that could be the line of the fringe cut.

[Steve Kline]

That looks fantastically fun to play.

[John Foley]

Nial - The details I got from the evolution of the course was from searching the old posts that Tom Paul & George Bahto posted on.

Micheal - There are some pretty severe greens where the arial approach is the only option - but most of the greens allow the ground game.

As for the dashes - not sure

[Eric Smith]

A contender for best looking golf course I've never heard of. Wow!

Thanks for posting, John. Look forward to seeing the back nine.

[John Foley]

Onto the back 9


Hole 10 – 381 yard Par 4
Tee shot is set against the horizon so not much to aim at. But once you get into the LZ what a great surprise to see an Alps before you. Large green is benched into the hillside with some tough bunkers.

From the tee


From the fw


From the LZ left


View of the hole form 18th tee


Panorama from behind the green w/ 18th hole & clubhouse in the distance


Panorama from the 11th tee with 10 & 18 & the clubhouse.


Hole 11 – 323 yard Par 4

One of the best views in all of golf I have ever seen – Cool short par 4 that will play tough as missing left or right you will be toast – Love the mounds short of the green

From the tee


Panorama including the rest of the back 9 from the tee


From the LZ


From behind the green


Hole 12 – 169 yard Par 3

Par 3 which plays from the dunes over a pond to the green tucked behind a berm – played into a tough wind.

From the tee


From behind the green


Hole 13 – 431 yard par 4

Next set of 5 holes may be some of the toughest on the coure due to length / hazard / wind, but I found them less interesting because there are all pretty flat.

Tee shot


From behind green


Hole 14 – 435 yard par 4

Again tough tee shot over hazard


Well done subtlety bunkered green


Hole 15 – 363 yard par 4
Fairly simple hole, but miss your drive or playing downwind the cross bunkers will come into play

From the tee


From the LZ – you can see the green has a lot of movement


Hole 16 – 391 yard par 4

Cool cape type tee shot – when the wind is up it is very tough


From the LZ


Well bunkered green


Hole 17 – 525 yard par 5
Again tough tee shot but much more room than it looks

From tee


From the LZ


No photo of the green but it is very good. Deep with a severe back to front tilt – it is to the left of the 11th fw  photo.

Hole 18 – 215 yard par 3

Played into the wind – straight uphill – very tough

From the tee


Panorama of the green


Clubhouse is very old fashion – no a/c or heat – very much a summer club (closed down for the season the day after our outing). Place just had a very comfortable feel.

View of the back (with the 1st tee in front of it) from the 9th tee.


The back of the course has the putting green,  chipping area & 18th green all tied together with the back porch. Very very cool setting.




View out to the Atlantic


Thoughts on the course.

Positives:

Front 9 (especially 1-4 8 & 9) is very very cool – the fairway movement really jumps out and makes the holes .

Wonderful walk – close tee to greens – fantastic vista’s

Loved the green complexes / subtle bunkering /chipping areas

Negatives:

Would liked to see some more FW movement on the ocean side holes – but much of it is reclaimed land

Why couldn’t the green for #12 be on the beach rather than the tee?

While 6214 is fine with me – it will get complaints by not being much of a challenge for the big hitters. Wind is the best defense for the course

It needs a short par 3 (120 yards or less) – Loved #8 but 5 par 3’s and 165 is the shortest?

If anyone is interested in this outing next year PM me and I can provide you the details. As I said it is for a great cause.

If you get a chance, you must go see & play it – the setting it fantastic the experience was great and the golf very very solid. You will not be disappointed.

[Dan Kelly]

Hole 1 - 382 yard Par 4

From the tee - Love the rumpled fw



Love at first sight.

[Brad Tufts]

6214 par 69 is actually like 6700 par 72...still not long, but not really short.

I've played this course twice...practice round and tourney round in a US Open qualifier in 2004.

I shot 72, and missed the qualifying score by 5 (!).  My playing partner shot a 65 hitting driver two times during the round...

[Mike Sweeney]

View out to the Atlantic

John,

Great review. Sorry for the pedantic nature of what follows, but after spending 6 summers in a boat on the Atlantic Ocean, I have the need to correct. Misquamicut sits on Block Island Sound, which detracts nothing away from the course.

[Bill Brightly]

John,

Great pics and thanks for posting! My college buddies have been getting together for the past 30 years for our annual "Poker Weekend" and we pick different parts of the country. One time I planned the trip in Hartford and was hunting around for courses to play. One of our group (an infrequent golfer) said his parents had a house membership at Misquamicut and he could probably get us on, then added that is a short little course that was "not too good." I added it to our intineray and hoped for the best.

We plated the TPC in Hartford first and Misquamicut the next day. Our group was blown away! They blew off the course I had scheduled for the next day and we played MC again! Definitely one of the best courses no one knows about!

[jeffwarne]

Very cool place.
Excellent golf course-great pro (Jim Corrigan)

It gets better though.
Members have reciprocity at Fishers.....

[John Foley]

View out to the Atlantic

John,

Great review. Sorry for the pedantic nature of what follows, but after spending 6 summers in a boat on the Atlantic Ocean, I have the need to correct. Misquamicut sits on Block Island Sound, which detracts nothing away from the course.

Learn somethign new every day! I knew it wasn't Narragansett Bay or LI Sound - just assumed it was the Atlantic!

[Mike Sweeney]

Very cool place.
Excellent golf course-great pro (Jim Corrigan)

It gets better though.
Members have reciprocity at Fishers.....

and Newport CC.

[Joe Bausch]

With regards to design attribution, I had Willie Park down as the original designer or did I get that wrong ?

From a lurker:

The 1899 Offficial Golf Guide says that the first nine holes were laid out by Willie Park Jr. in May of 1895 and the second by Willie Anderson in 1896.

That full course only measured about 4000 yards, however, so there have been obvious changes since.

[Mark McKeever]

is the parking lot to the left of 18 green as close as it looks?  i would be scared of that tee shot.

Mark