Just played Hyannisport today.  It has been about 6 years since I last played (our club has a reciprocal in the offseason), and it is a sporty course with some fun holes.  Unfortunately we were in the middle of our round and a fleet of carts appeared out of nowhere and took over the course.  Must have been some kind of outing that our home club was not told when we registered to play.  We had the course pretty much to ourselves until the 14th tee.

 The Ross aficionados can chime in here, but I do believe he remodeled the course and added 5 holes in 1936.

In any event, I thought I would post some pics of a few holes.

The par four 4th from the fairway:


The 4th looking back from the green:


The par five 16th tee (poor exposure):


The 16th fairway:


The 16th looking back from the green:



The par 3 17th:


The 17th green (If Ross designed this, I would not be surprised if he modeled it after RDGC 2nd hole, although it is a weak representation, but an exacting hole nonetheless):


Looking towards the back of the par four 18th tee:


The 18th tee:


The 18th fairway:


Looking back from the 18th green:


Hope you enjoy.

Randy

Those pictures look great. The course looks to have good topography, width and a natural flow to it.

Thanks for sharing.  This is a great time of year to play given the few nice weather days left in the year.

More than any course recently that one and this thread has inspired me to write a really in-depth report and analysis of this golf course, hole by hole and detail by detail (with a couple of recommendations).

Tom,

I will remind you but would love to see that.

Tom MacWood:

Hyannisport, one of the earliest golf courses on Cape Cod, was founded in 1897 as the Hyannis Port Golf Club. The first "course" consisted of six holes and was located on the port side of the marsh.

The first putting green was placed well below where the present 18th green is located. The first tee was placed just below St Andrews Church at the time the Payson Farm (St Andrews Church is behind the clubhouse higher up the hill).

In 1902 wanting a more formal nine hole course the club hired Alex Findlay.

In 1936 the club hired Donald Ross to redesign the existing 18 hole course. I'm not sure how the club got from Findlay's original nine to 18 holes.

After preliminary routing plans were drawn relatively detailed plans were drawn up by Ross but the project floundered. Mr Frank Paine, a noted architect and builder of colonial buildings who was a founding member and president of the club for 25 years took over the project. Paine's skill in reshaping land gained from the construction of numerous houses allowed him to strictly adhere to Ross's plans and thereby made Hyannisport GC nominally a Donald Ross golf course.

For me playing Hyannisport about 3-4 times in the beginning of October in the Lesley Cup was something of a new wrinkle. The golf course is on essentially a sand based site and even though it was remarkably firm and fast "through the green" the course was also surprisingly lush green in color. This is a combination I've basically never seen before! (It may've been somewhat unique even to Hyannisport because they do say they enjoy browning their course a bit to create speed on the entire course).

There's another interesting wrinkle about the course I'm not sure I've ever seen before. There is a tradition at Hyannisport that all the tidal marsh areas are played as "through the green". This produces what Hyannisport refers to as their traditonal "Marsh Shot".

When you first look at those massive tidal marshes that come into play on a few holes you think there is no way you could ever find your ball or even walk out in the marshes but in most cases you can.

Apparently members of Hyannisport GC wear with pride the indication of a marsh shot which is to return to the clubhouse with your clothes all spattered with mud.

How cool is that? Real GOLF, I'd call it.

I'm not too sure what some EPA bureaucrats would call it.  

There was another interesting wrinkle playing the course in early October. The greens were relatively deep green but were fairly firm and about as fast as Oakmont on a down day. That was the first time I've ever really seen it relatively difficult to stop downwind approaches from some areas and downwind putts on a golf course.  

One of the little blessing about playing the course for three days was one day was relatively calm but the other two days the wind blew like holy hell and luckily from two opposite directions which allowed us all to see two or perhaps three very different courses.  

Coming out of the Lesley Cup matches last year at GCGC which was the Lesley Cup's Centennial (It all began at GCGC in 1905) a lot of Lesley players told me do not miss next year at Hyannisport because it is a different and very cool little golf course.

They certainly were right about that. For the "fun" factor Hyannisport has to be in the top ten in America.

RandyVS;

During the alternate shot round my partner hit his drive long but into the marsh and I hit a beautiful shot out of the marsh on #4 right onto the green. In the process I think I decapitated an extremely rare Early Colonial American Stripped Headed Bullfrog. Do you think I'll have to spend the rest of my days in some Federal penitentary?  

RandyVS;

During the alternate shot round my partner hit his drive long but into the marsh and I hit a beautiful shot out of the marsh on #4 right onto the green. In the process I think I decapitated an extremely rare Early Colonial American Stripped Headed Bullfrog. Do you think I'll have to spend the rest of my days in some Federal penitentary?  

Quite the reverse, Tom, I would think in the current political climate a job in the White House awaits you, administrating the "Clean Fairways Act" or something similar...

I used to holiday with the first wife's family down in Sandwich so spent a little time at HyannisPort. My first thought upon seeing the course was "poor man's NGLA". On closer inspection it is not really that...  Looking at the photos, and reading your report it struck me that any competent builder can follow a routing plan. Preserving the intended  shot values and interest around the greens is what requires the most expertise and onsite attention to detal.  

The setting is somewhat similar though... with a very good routing down into the marshlands, the tidal pond and up the surrounding hills.

Ted Kennedy hosted a private Deval Patrick fundraiser at the Kennedy compound a couple weekends ago, and I was looking forward to seeing the course, but a prior committment in NH kept me away. It doesn't surprise me to see the course this green in fall. The first time I saw HyannisPort was around this time of year and even greener as I recall. Many of the CC courses keep their color until Thanksgiving... Apart from the last couple of years, which have seen large snowdumps on the Cape, the area generally experiences much less fall/winter than Boston.

Tom MacW:

If you think the club's history is wrong, I'm sure they'd appreciate any corrections.  

Anthony:

This info can be found in Brad Klein's book on Ross but beginning in 1925 Ross and his family began spending the summers in Little Compton R.I. on a farm overlooking the sea by the name of Quaker Hill Farm. I do not know, however, if Ross and his family spent their summers there until the end of Ross's life in 1948.

I've always felt that most of the R.I Ross courses are remarkably good and it's probably little wonder why---he was right there in the summers.

Sakonnet G.C. is only two miles from Quaker Hill Farm, for instance.

Dang - I thought this was Hyannis, Nebraska and a new golf course in the Sandhills