Save Cape Cod Country Club

How would you feel if your local home golf course was dismantled so the owners could make a boatload of cash?

The historic and nearly untouched Golden Age, Devereux Emmet design of Cape Cod Country Club is facing this exact outcome. Friel Golf Management, which owns and operates several golf facilities in the New England area, has put CCCC on the chopping block. In 2021, David Friel wrote, “The expansion of golf courses on the Cape over the past decade or two and the reduction in the number of golfers nationwide has forced me, from a financial viability standpoint, to consider other land use options for the Cape Cod Country Club.” At this same time, the Friel family entered an agreement with Amp Energy to convert the property into the largest solar array in Massachusetts, rather than seek a new ownership group to manage the golf course and carry on its history and role as a local golf hub.

{{inline-course}}

National Golf Foundation data suggests that there are over 4.4 million more Americans playing golf today than in 2020. This isn’t about a failing market or the financial viability of a public golf course, it’s about dumping a community asset to make a profit. Additionally, in 2023, another Friel-owned golf course, Green Meadow Golf Club in New Hampshire, was sold to Target for over $120 million to create a distribution center in place of the 36-hole golf facility. 

It’s very rare for a nearly untouched Golden Age golf course of this quality to exist in the modern era. This affordable public golf course is beloved by its local community and rightfully so. I visited the course last summer and was captivated by its old-school charm and fascinating history that dates back to the early 1900s. Renewable energy is a tremendous initiative for the well-being of our planet, but can’t it be implemented somewhere where it doesn’t replace a beloved community asset? I hope the bleak future of this golf course can make a turn for the better.

Please consider signing this petition to help save Cape Cod Country Club, and check out Baystate Golf for more information on the dire situation.