Cape Cod Country Club

Favorite Hole

No. 8, par 4, 417 yards

Playing over some of the most dramatic land on property, the tee shot on the eighth is completely blind. A right-to-left shot off the tee is ideal for finding the heavily contoured fairway, which has a break at 285 yards. After cresting the hill that obscures the tee view, a tumbling, rumpled fairway is revealed, with a sunken bowl on the left side and another through the slight dog-leg in the right rough. Both of these bowls leave difficult approaches into the tilted green. The flat portion that sits above the bowls is ideal.

The green itself is tilted strongly from back-right to front-left. Missing long will result in an extremely challenging up and down.

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Overall Thoughts

At the point in his career when he took on this project, Devereux Emmet was already highly regarded as a golf course architect. He’d also just made Alfred Tull a partner in his design firm after Tull served as an associate for five years. Since 1929 Cape Cod C.C. has undergone almost no changes, other than lengthening some holes and shortening No. 16 from a par 4 to a par 3.

An old-school feeling is evident as soon as you step on the property. The drive down the entrance road provides a preview of much of the back nine, including the infamous 14th, a volcano hole. The rugged, worn bunkers immediately caught my eye. With their long grass edges, they look sewn into the natural landscape. The weathered entrance sign, tattered maintenance shed, and parking lot hitting net reinforce the feeling that this course is old and deeply ingrained in the New England environment, a world Emmet knew so well.

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The course itself presents a modest unflashy aesthetic. Strategic bunkers, excellent green sites, and a routing that takes full advantage of the landforms are what make Cape Cod C.C. special. While many of today’s Golden Age courses have rebuilt bunkers that mimic an old and weathered sand trap, the sand traps at Cape Cod truly are old and weathered. The sandy soil beneath the surface creates this worn look because the bunker edges gradually crumble away, revealing small pockets of sand along the faces. Just the right amount of maintenance of the bunkers adds to this aesthetic. I especially admire the way they just mow as far as the mower allows, leaving the steeper landforms around the bunkers adorned with longer grass, which adds texture and depth.

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While not every green has the most interesting internal contouring, the location of each is quite masterful. A mix of some greens on high points and ridges with others pressed up against the base of hillsides or even in bowls creates variety in every approach shot.

A big shortcoming of the course’s current greens: the (presumably) shrunken surfaces. Humps, hollows, and rolls surround almost every green, but most now reside in the collar or rough. Simply mowing the green pads out further would greatly enhance the quality and variety of the greens at Cape Cod. The third green, for example, has amazing rolls around the perimeter that eat well into the putting surface, allowing for intriguing pin positions and compelling putts. Pictures of Cape Arundel, a Walter Travis design in Maine, are a good example of what the greens at Cape Cod could resemble. This makes sense, as Travis and Emmet worked together on many of the same golf courses and had a strong friendship.

Walking Cape Cod C.C. with a bag over your shoulders is a serene experience to say the least. The front nine takes players out and away from the clubhouse into a more heavily forested section of the property. Holes play up, along, down, or into large ridgelines that cut through much of the golf course. Holes 1, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, and 18 all interact with different ridges or high points to create interesting approach shots, while the other holes tend to occupy more open, meadow-like settings. This balance makes for a really enjoyable walk, one that doesn’t feel like a strenuous hike while still allowing for attention-grabbing golf holes. The corridor widths are also generous. They don’t feel cramped despite there being significantly more trees on the property now than there were in the early days. Emmet and Tull did all the right things at this golf course and while time has worn on the bones it still provides a compelling test that evokes emotion for the golf obsessed.

1 Egg

Cape Cod Country Club is a well-preserved example of Golden Age golf architecture from one of the game’s greatest architects. The old-school aura that this property exudes is a strong attraction for anyone who loves the game at its purest form. Expanding the green surfaces out further, altering some fairway lines, and selective tree removal would go a very long way here, and those changes would potentially earn a second egg. But there’s something special about places that feel like they’re stuck in a past life, and I love that about the current version of Cape Cod. We can only hope this course survives the chopping block on which it currently sits.

Course Tour

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