The Captains Course, Brewster, MA (photos)

[Dan_Callahan]

I was out on Cape Cod yesterday and drove past The Captains Golf Course. Conditions looked great and the parking lot was empty. Of course, it was 30 degrees out and 20 mph winds, but the sun was shining. For $20, I got the twilight rate at 1:00 and was back in my car by 3:30.

Even in the off season, this is a very fun course designed by Brian Silva. (I played the Starboard course. There is also a Port course). Unlike some of his courses that are hampered by very difficult terrain (Cyprian, Shattuck), the Captains property has some wonderful rolls and humps but no steep hills. As a result, it is a very easy walk.

The Starboard course hhas a very New England look to it, with fairways lined by pine trees. However, it never feels tight, and most fairways have generous width inthe landing areas. Here are some photos (not many, because my hands were getting cold holding the camera):


The opening hole is a straightforward par 4 with no tricks—just getting things going.


The second is a severely downhill par 3


After a 450-yard par 4 fourth, there is no rest. This 213-yard par 3 is one of the best holes on the course. There is tons of bailout room to the right, and the green slopes severely from right to left.


This is a look at the second shot from this 300-yard driveable par 4.


I think this is the par 5 seventh. The tee shot is uphill into a saddle. Carrying the top of the hill means lots of extra roll. The picture is the approach to the green


Hard dogleg left par 4. Second shot is significantly down hill.


The only right angle dogleg on the course. The tee shot is mildly interesting, but the green site is terrific.


The 12th is another short par 4. You would like to stay to the left. I didn't and had to cope with the bunker on my approach.


An interesting use of trees on the 14th. Lits of room out to the right, but I went left and had this to look at for a second shot. Not that big a deal in March, but I'd guess that in June the view to the green is completely obstructed.


The beginning of a great finish. The 16th is a massive hole at 468 yards. Anything left off the tee falls off into a pond. The green is way off to the left. To shorten the second shot, you would want to play as close to those bunkers as possible.


A very cool short par 3 17th. That center bunker is probably 5 yards short of the green.


The closing hole is a 530 yard par 5. The tee shot is difficult, but the layup and approach are pretty easy, making this a definite birdie hole. I would say this is a feel good finish, since there isn't a whole lot of risk and great potential for reward.

[Jim_Kennedy]

Dan,
You're a brave man  

Thanks for the photos. Looks like a good mix of fun and challenge.

[Jay Cox]

I've never been out to Captains.  I'd heard okay, but not great, reviews, and couldn't get myself excited enough to ever get past Plymouth when driving down that way to play.  But after seeing those pictures, I'll have to reconsider -- it looks pretty interesting!  Thanks Dan.

[Mark Arata]

I used to play this course about 10 times a summmer when I worked on the Cape. I loved it before they built the 2nd 18 and intergrated the holes. The original 18 holes was just perfect, I liked some of the new holes, but I wish they had left the original 18 alone and build the 2nd course as a stand-alone......

The biggest problem was getting a tee time in the summer after the 4th of July....you either had to be dating someone who lived in Brewster, or you had to pull a Bethpage and practically camp out overnight......

This was my favorite (public) course on the Cape, with Cranberry Valley in Harwich a very close second.....

[Jay Flemma]

It's funny, even though Brian won best new course for Captain's Club in '85, he said afterward that he still thought it fell short.

It was shortly after that he "had an epiphany."

He started studying Raynor and MacD more and decided that if he turned the hazards perpendicular to the line of play, holes got exponentially more interesting.  It's fun playing is courses in chronological order to see "The artists progression."  Waverly was the first and you can also see 17, a prototype of 11 at Red tail.

Then  play red tail and finally black rock.

Those last two are seriously heavy on great hole designs.

[Cliff Hamm]

Have played Captain's a few times.  Agree with the assessment of it being a fun course to play. In fact one of the reaons I go to the NE golf expo is to get the advance ticket for $70 which includes a 2 for one for both courses.  Also, get a 2 for 1 for Blackstone National, which is fabulous...Anyway, Fairways are plenty wide with options, is consistently in decent shape with excellent greens.  A quality muni...Drawbacks for me are that the holes tend to blend. Although, interestingly 5 and 16 are two I can always recall and also among my favorites.  Another drawback is the Starboard and Port are impossible to really distinguish and it would be a stronger 36 holes if the two 18's were a bit different.  Finally, pace of play in the summer is problematic.  Overall though a good experience, enjoyable and well worth playing.

[Brad Tufts]

I have played these courses many times each, most notably during the NEIGA college tournament after it moved from New Seabury in 2000.  Every team from New England goes, and it's played a Monday-Tuesday following one of the last two weekends of October.  Inevitably, the best one can hope for is 60 degrees and only one club of wind.

The facility is very good, and it's interesting that Silva thought it fell short even though it is looked upon with reverence by the locals (must have something to do with the $400 yearly pass for Brewster-folk).  The older holes, in my opinion are a bit more bland, some even demand shots that border on the absurd (#3P, #7P, #8P).  However, the newer 18 (9 on each course (1998) paired with an older nine from 1985) has more interesting, fun, and fair holes, possibly reflective of the closely-approaching epiphany factor.  

The fun comes from the interesting play on par, especially on the port (the more challenging of the two).  Within the span of 6 holes from 12-17 you have two reachable par fives (one only 470, but over a chasm fronting the green, two shortish par fours with exacting approaches over a kettle (cape for glaicially-formed sinkhole) and a pond, and an uphill, 245-yd par 3 where a 4 beat the avg. in the NEIGAs of about 4.4.  As soon as Silva gives, he takes away, which is what a fun course should do.  

There are other half-par holes to tackle, like #16 on the Starboard pictured above, which is almost a 4 3/4 par hole, #3 on the Starboard, and #5 (starboard) above, the redan-ish par 3 that may have been a preview to the showstopper at Waverly fronted by the 25-ft deep bunker.  

After alot of consideration, I think they are both very good courses, the Port more of a challenge.  As long as you stay out of the cape pine forests lining every hole, and the deep, bracken-filled kettles, you can have alot of fun here.

[Mark Arata]

I dont know about the older holes being that bland, there was a beautiful drop shot par 3, (11th) and a couple of fun par 5's (7 and 12), the original 16th was a wierd par 5 where you hit driver, then wedge, then 5 iron, it played up hill off the tee, and then down hill, with a pond fronting the green and a huge elevation change from the fairway. I remember 18 being a fun finishing hole.

 I liked a lot of the new holes, I just wish they had been routed on their own instead of incorporating them into the old course, I am sure there were numerous reasons to do it the way they did, the original course was one of the first places I played golf on a full sized course, so it holds more reverence to me I guess......

[Bill Shotzbarger]

I played this course when I was really young and my dad used to take us to the cape. We played Captains, Cranberry Valley, Eastward Ho, Chatham Seaside Links, and the oldest course on the cape? - I can't remember its name.

[Dan_Callahan]

Bill,

Probably Highlands Links, a very rugged and spectacular 9-hole course in Truro.

[Cliff Hamm]

It's been years since i've played Highland Links and have never been to Ireland/Scotland, but I don't believe there's a course in the US that resembles Ireland/Scotland more than this absolutely natural 9 holer.  Not a great web site but http://www.truro-ma.gov/golf.html

[Brad Tufts]

Highland Links is great fun, although probably would be better appreciated with hickories or irons only.  The course is only 2700 yards long.  There are a couple of fun holes out there, the 2nd, with its downhill tee shot to a valley fairway between two gorse-covered hills.  There are some cool depressions and dips in the middle of the nine, and the 9th, the little par 3 is very fun.  My favorite golf picture I have taken is of this hole, a 130-yarder to a two-tiered green )lower left and upper right) with the lighthouse in the background, a flowerbed lower right, and the edge of the weather-beaten Truro Historical Society building to the right of the tee.

Truthfully, I was slightly underwhelmed due to the "legendary" moniker I read before going there, as 6 of the holes are pretty flat and uninteresting.  However, you are playing on a cliff's edge with a 180 degree ocean panorama, and it is a good appoximation of links turf.  I'd go back in a second.