Metacomet GC

[John Blain]

Metacomet is coming back!  Well, kind of, sort of....


EXCLUSIVE: The Rebirth of Metacomet - Met Links (golfnewsri.com)


Better than nothing, I suppose.

[MCirba]

Willie Park Jr. and Donald Ross would likely be doing this.   


Thanks for sharing, John.

[mark chalfant]

"Rebirth" is a very poor choice of words. Metacomet's lost back nine was a superb routing composed of several outstanding par fours and two stout par threes. Brad Klein provides an excellent study of Metacomet's architectural significance in his book Discovering Donald Ross.


The famous Ross course in town (a few miles north) has great greens and several excellent/testing holes. For me it never had the immense character that pervaded the rolling property at Metacomet. A huge Golden Age loss!

[Tim Martin]

The famous Ross course in town (a few miles north) has great greens and several excellent/testing holes. For me it never had the immense character that pervaded the rolling property at Metacomet. A huge Golden Age loss!

Mark-Your comparison to Wannamoisett is spot on. I’ve always admired what Ross did there on a small piece of land without any notable natural landforms but the end result is always a scorecard that looks like hieroglyphics and a fat lip. Metacomet was a joy to play from start to finish.

[MCirba]

Metacomet was to Wannamoissett what NGLA is to Shinnecock.

[Tim Martin]

Metacomet was to Wannamoissett what NGLA is to Shinnecock.

Mike-I don’t know why Wannamoisett doesn’t take the 2nd hole back to a par five as it was on opening day. It’s an incredibly difficult second shot even from the most forward set of tees which only play 5600 yards. Mortals laying up before the creek to any early pin are faced with a tough two putt if high and wide of the hole to make bogey. The 9th which was also a par five on opening day with another forced carry on the approach is also uber difficult and although rated the number three handicap hole I think it’s harder than the 16th. Finally I can’t think of a tougher outgoing nine in New England.

[MCirba]

Metacomet was to Wannamoissett what NGLA is to Shinnecock.

Mike-I don’t know why Wannamoisett doesn’t take the 2nd hole back to a par five as it was on opening day. It’s an incredibly difficult second shot even from the most forward set of tees which only play 5600 yards. Mortals laying up before the creek to any early pin are faced with a tough two putt if high and wide of the hole to make bogey. The 9th which was also a par five on opening day with another forced carry on the approach is also uber difficult and although rated the number three handicap hole I think it’s harder than the 16th. Finally I can’t think of a tougher outgoing nine in New England.

Tim,


It's the tyranny of "par", right?   The irony is that they are both tough par fives but they call them fours!

[John Blain]

Metacomet was to Wannamoissett what NGLA is to Shinnecock.

Mike-I don’t know why Wannamoisett doesn’t take the 2nd hole back to a par five as it was on opening day. It’s an incredibly difficult second shot even from the most forward set of tees which only play 5600 yards. Mortals laying up before the creek to any early pin are faced with a tough two putt if high and wide of the hole to make bogey. The 9th which was also a par five on opening day with another forced carry on the approach is also uber difficult and although rated the number three handicap hole I think it’s harder than the 16th. Finally I can’t think of a tougher outgoing nine in New England.

Tim,


It's the tyranny of "par", right?   The irony is that they are both tough par fives but they call them fours!

On my one and only trip around Wannamoisett I hit a pretty decent drive and 3-wood on the second hole thinking it had a good chance to be on the green only to find my ball in the creek fronting the green that I didn't even know was there!
I agree with Tim that the front nine is a brute. I guess that happens when two holes that were designed as par 5's become par 4's.
Great course though. I played it on a chilly day in October of 2018 and I can still remember every hole.

[Mike Feeney]

The latest update or propaganda?
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr3FcC9tVsa/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

[Tommy Williamsen]

I never got to Metacomet. I have played Wannamoisett a few times. It is an example of routing genius. I have yet to hit the third green. Fortunately, I could get up and down each time.

[Max Prokopy]

I enjoyed Metacomet but in its 2012 iteration I played, MC would not begin to sniff Wannamoisett. 

[Mike Feeney]

Met Links -- Opening "later this year". Preview video https://youtu.be/Btk13rx9XQU?si=mFOP7oIPcTdon83H

• 9 Holes...those sustained from original: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 7.

Robert McNeil, from Northeast Golf, provided the following:

• Hole 1 “The first hole is essentially the first hole. Number one is number one with all new bunkering, we took down a bunch of trees already. The tee is going to be located a little bit to the left. The green is the green and the hole is the hole. Number one is essentially the same hole.”

• Hole 2 “We looked at a variety of different things for hole two, but in the end, number two is number two. It is exactly the way it is right now, which is a classic golf hole. What we are doing is restoring all the bunkering that is on that hole. The bunkers on the left in the driving area, bunkers near the green, just got lost in the woods.We are recapturing the original fairway lines, pushing everything out and back where it was from the original Ross pictures.”

• Hole 3 “Number three is number three. We are recapturing the kop bunkers on the left hand side. Those bunkers had been gone for a long long time. In fact when I was there 10 years ago doing work I wanted to get to these bunkers and now finally. They come into play on two holes, three, and the old four. We took down some trees there. Number three has been rebuilt several times in the past. We are going back to the original history of the green complex while recapturing the style of the bunkering. Those bunkers there now are not original.”

• Hole 4 “Then your going to go up above three and around and end up on the original number seven, which is the par-3 coming back. That is going to be number four. So number seven is going to be number four. You can play from the original tees, and we are going to have tees on the opposite side of the woods or a forward tee (about 90 yards.) We are rebunkering that green, clean up the left hand side, move things over. The green is awesome, the green is really cool.”

• Hole 5 “Number five sits on the routing of the original number eight up on the plateau and plays over the big divine is going to be a short four. It’s going to be a 300 yard, drivable four on the first three quarters on that hole. It’s going to stop before the ravine, that’s where the green is going to sit. Super strategic, adding bunkers and going to set them next to ravine. Going to be a really cool golf hole.”

• Hole 6 “Six will play as a par 3 to the original eighth green. It will play over the ravine. All the bunkers will be rebuilt, going to restyle the fairway.”
  
• Hole 7 “Seven is going to be another par-3, back-to-back par threes. It will play back to the existing sixth green. We are going to rebuild the green completely because it was facing the other way. Going to rebuild it, face it to us. So that’s going to be number seven.”
• Hole 8 “Number eight is going to be the existing fourth hole. You have the pot bunkers on the left, we are restoring all the bunkering. It’s going to play just the way it did.”
  
• Hole 9 “The ninth hole is going to be the existing number five. The par -3, classic Ross raised plateau par-3 with all new fairway contouring around it, new bunkering.”

[Brad Tufts]

This seems like a cool project, even though it was unfortunate to lose a full Park/Ross 18.  I have a soft spot, as it is the site of my career low on my only visit…”how does it feel to shoot 64?….Like it should’ve been a 63…”


The best part was that it was the back end of a 36-hole day, and i had barely broken 80 at Newport in benign conditions in the AM, and had to be talked into playing round #2.


In the state it was in c. 2016, I didn’t see much quality comparison with Wannamoisett, but I get that they were once much closer. 


Will have to check out the new Met Links!

[MCirba]

Is the Met Links course going to survive the latest development plans?  Hope so...it looks good from aerials.


Also, if it helps to use the Ross name in preserving some of the course so be it, but most of the golf course was the creation of Willie Park, Jr.

[Tim Gavrich]

This is a much better result than the total loss I had heard/feared might happen. What I liked most about Metacomet was that it started extremely strong - those first five holes were awesome, and it's a relief to know that they will form the heart of the new version. I like that the ravine hole has been chopped up; I think that will be an improvement. I look forward to playing it this summer.

[Mike Feeney]

Met Links -- Looking to open on or about June 1. Latest promo.
https://youtu.be/-0L_VQHTwyA?si=kPPqV03x1gBsio8g

[Tim Martin]

Hopeful with a healthy dose of skepticism.

[Dan_Callahan]

Whatever happened with the lawsuit against Brad Faxon and his group that purchased Metacomet? Does that have no bearing on all these changes to the course?

[Ronald Montesano]

I don't hate the application of "rebirth" to Met Links (nee Metacomet.) As words go, rebirth simply means second birth to me. It doesn't need to mean identical to the original.

I had the opportunity to photograph the Metacomet course, a few years before it shut its doors. We had hoped to play, but a scheduling dither placed our round at the same time as an RIGA Links event...alas.

Lynch and I enjoyed our tour, although we wondered how the 13th hole at Dunes Club Myrtle Beach, somehow found its way to Rhode Island, and from Donald Ross, no less. It's a neat property, and I hope that the Met Links course has years of play and success.

[Mike Feeney]

Met Links -- opens June 27https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/metlinks-golf-course-in-east-providence-to-open-june-27/ar-BB1ozUCm?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=b747150ec1354210bfe467fc8bb9b9bb&ei=16

[Tommy Williamsen]

It feels like folks are to feel good about their home cut in half. At least some of the rooms will be intact.

[Ronald Montesano]

Wonder what it's like to have no home at all? I must be a glass-half-full guy.

[Mark McKeever]

Anyone attending the opening of the course?  Would be cool to see some pics.




Mark

[Cliff Hamm]

https://www.metlinksgolf.com/course

[Tommy Williamsen]

Wonder what it's like to have no home at all? I must be a glass-half-full guy.

I wonder how you would feel if it were your home course. Nine hole golf courses get very crowded. I'd go somewhere else to play.