Newport National Golf Club

Arthur Hills designed Newport National Golf Club in 2002 on a piece of Middletown, Rhode Island Aquidneck Island land — the same island that hosts the famous Newport Country Club, the 1894 USGA founding member, and the broader Newport coastal-golf cluster. Newport National was conceived as a public-access daily-fee facility — distinct from the private Newport Country Club nearby — and Hills routed the eighteen holes through natural Rhode Island coastal terrain with significant Atlantic Ocean exposure and the prevailing onshore wind as the daily architectural defense.

The course plays around 7,250 yards par 72 from the back markers, with fescue rough and a slope in the upper 140s. The fairways play firm given the sandy Rhode Island coastal subsoil; the Atlantic wind moves the playing length significantly day to day. The eighth hole is a 213-yard par-3 with the Atlantic visible behind the green; the seventeenth, a 540-yard par-5 along a natural ridge, is the routing's most-photographed mid-round hole. The native foliage and the open coastal-plain routing give the property visual signature consistent with the broader Aquidneck Island golf landscape.

Newport National is open to public daily-fee play at premium rates by New England standards — the pricing reflects the architectural quality and the destination Newport-area location. The hospitality model is built around the daily-fee experience, with visitors typically combining the round with broader Newport-area cultural and culinary visits.

Rhode Island coastal climate gives Newport National a playing season of April through November, with the firmest conditions in September and October. The Atlantic-influenced marine breeze gives the property reliable daily wind through summer. The course closes through brief winter cold snaps. The native fescue and the coastal-plain exposure produce playing conditions consistent with the broader New England links-style golf landscape.