Top 5 MA. vs. Top 5 RI?

[Steve Mann]

If we just limit it to 5 courses does Rhody actually have as good a line-up.  I would be judging these on great/good courses that you could play everyday and not get bored.
wannamoisett
newport
misquamicut
rhode island cc
metacomet/point judith

thoughts?

What would be the MA courses if you could only pick 5 and only 5???

[DTaylor18]

Myopia
Charles River
Winchester
The Country Club
Kittansett

honorable mention:
Sankaty Head
Taconic
The Orchards
Essex
Longmeadow
Eastward Ho

[jim_lewis]

I haven't played a lot of Massachusetts courses, but it is hard to imagine that there are 5 courses better than Salem. When I make a  list of courses I would chose if I were going to play the same couse regularly, Salem is always high on my list.

[Brad Klein]

Massachusetts is 7,800 square miles with 6.5 million people

Rhode island is only 1,050 square miles and 1.05 million population.

Given that disparity, Rhode Island has more quality golf per square mile/per capita population than any state in the Union. Massachusetts has more better courses, but not more per square mile or per population.

And don't leave out Sakonnet, a gem of a course that Ross worked on more than any other outside of Pinehurst in his entire career.

[Cliff Hamm]

Perhaps more quality private golf.  Public access is awful.

Cliff

[Steve Mann]

dr. klein-

great point with sakonnet. how could i leave that off the list? i played it for the first time about 5 weeks ago and was extremely impressed.  what a golf course, and all you want from the tips at about 6400, especially with constant wind.  great variety.  i walked it about 10 years ago but never got to play until last month.  could you fill me in on holes 8,9 and 10?  they appeared to have different grass on the greens(newer).  are they "new" holes with land the club had and built newer holes?

and for all you conditioning guys, this place was in the best shape of any golf course in new england this year!  

[SPDB]

Steve -

As legend has it, when Ross was designing the course he had assumed (or had relied on instructions) that continguous land was part of the existing club owned land. Accordingly, he made hole sketches for the land and it was incorporated into the design.

As the construction began, it became evident that the club did not, in fact, own the land and that it was privately owned. The club apparently tried to reconcile the situation by buying the land, but the owner refused to sell. This forced Club/Ross to re-route/design the course so it headed further inland.

Recently, however, the club secured ownership of the original land in question. The club had a trove of material on the holes that were originally planned for the waterfront acreage, and supposedly built holes to specification as they were planned in Ross' original routing design. I have yet to get up to see it in person, and I thought it was being done by Prichard, but I think it was hanse that did it.

[Brad Klein]

The new work at Sakonnet was done by Gil Hanse. Besides creating holes that Ross had planned but never built at the far end of the property that return to the water's edge, Hanse undid some dreadful renovation work done, I believe, by Geoffrey Cornish in the 1960s/1970s.

I agree that Rhode Island is awful on the daily-fee side, but there's a lot in the ground at Triggs Memorial GC (Ross) on the west side of Providence that could serve as the basis for one of the country's better classic munis. In that sense it's about comparable with George Wright in Boston.

[Dan_Callahan]

Although Rhode Island has very few noteworthy public courses, Newport National is as good as any of the upscale public courses in Mass (Ranch, Waverley Oaks, Blackstone, Red Tail, Crumpin Fox, etc.). It also has some nice ocean views.