The Kittansett Club

The verdict

Kittansett is the kind of course that connoisseurs of links golf travel a long way to play. Founded in 1922 on a low peninsula reaching into Buzzards Bay at Marion, it was built from plans drawn by the great architect William Flynn, with founding member Frederic C. Hood leading the construction and refining the course over the following two decades. For years Hood was credited as the sole designer until original blueprints confirmed Flynn's hand, and the course blends American and British ideas into one of the most authentic seaside layouts in the country.

It plays as a par 71 of about 6,600 yards, modest on the card and formidable in the wind, which sweeps in off the bay and turns a gentle morning round into a stern afternoon test. Gil Hanse restored the course sensitively between 2009 and 2013, recovering lost width and bunker character, and the result is a links of firm turf, sandy waste and exposed greens that rewards the low, controlled flight. Kittansett is private and quietly revered, so for a traveling golfer it is reached through a member, but it belongs on any short list of America's finest seaside courses.

The holes worth the trip

Everyone comes to Kittansett for the 3rd, and it lives up to the billing. It is a short par 3 played to a green sitting alone in a vast sea of sand, an island of turf ringed by waste, where anything less than a confident, committed strike finds the beach. On a still day it is a thrilling target; into a stiff bay breeze it becomes one of the hardest short holes in New England, and it is among the most photographed holes anywhere in the region.

The rest of the course earns its reputation more quietly but no less surely. The links runs out toward the water and back, with firm fairways that feed and bound, sandy hazards in all the right places and small, exposed greens that punish the long approach. The wind is the constant variable, so the same hole can call for a wedge one day and a long iron the next, and the player who can flight the ball and read the breeze is rewarded again and again.

What stays with visitors is the authenticity of it all. Kittansett does not imitate a links; on this stretch of Massachusetts coast it simply is one, firm and fast and at the mercy of the elements. The Hanse restoration sharpened its character without modernizing it, and the result is a course that feels timeless, a true seaside test that every links lover should try to see.

Where to stay nearby

Marion and the wider South Coast supply relaxed lodging, from harbor inns and bed and breakfasts in the village to larger hotels around New Bedford and toward the Cape Cod canal, all within easy reach of the club. Boston and its airport are about an hour north, so a visit pairs comfortably with the city or with a wider New England trip.

Kittansett anchors a memorable Massachusetts golf trip, alongside the classic clubs of the Boston area and the coast, and we can build the lodging and transfers around your round. Tell us your dates and we will shape it.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts around the South Coast.