Essex County Club

Essex County Club in Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts, twenty-five miles north of Boston on Cape Ann, was founded in 1893 — one of the oldest country clubs in America. The original nine holes were laid out by Willie Campbell, the Scottish-born professional who installed himself as the club's first head pro in 1894. Donald Ross expanded the course to eighteen holes in 1917 and added many of the design elements the current routing still uses: the crowned greens, the deep cross-bunkering, the par-3 lineup. Essex hosted the U.S. Women's Open in 1925 and 1929 — championships that placed the club in the early-twentieth-century rotation alongside Brookline and Myopia.

The course at the back markers measures 6,555 yards, par 70, with a slope of 135 and a course rating of 71. The yardage is short by modern championship standards, but the par-70 over 6,555 yards is the marker that the routing is meant to be played positionally. The four par-3s sit between 142 and 233 yards. The 233-yard first is unusual — most courses do not open with a long par-3 — but Ross designed Essex this way deliberately, and the long opening one-shotter sets the tone for what the round will ask.

The number-one handicap is the 623-yard fifth, the longer of the routing's two par-5s and one of the longest holes in eastern Massachusetts public-or-private golf. It plays uphill across two fairway crests and into the prevailing west wind off Cape Ann. The 379-yard second-hardest is a short par-4 with a creek crossing in front of the green; the difficulty rating reflects the green complex more than the tee shot. The 422-yard third-hardest is the long par-4 ninth, which closes the front nine with an approach into a green Ross crowned aggressively from front to back.

Essex's coastal Massachusetts climate keeps the course playable from April through October, with the ocean-moderated air producing fewer ninety-degree afternoons than inland New England clubs. The fescue rough thickens through June; the greens reach their championship pace in late July. Walking is the standard mode of play. The membership is small and access is members-and-guests only.