Private clubs; public opportunities
The name of golf course architect Donald Ross is famous all over the world. Ross designed many championship courses during the period 1900 to 1948 including the spectacular Pinehurst #2 in North Carolina, the site of many major tournaments.
The village of Osterville has not one, but two Donald Ross Golf courses. Winding through the village is the Wianno Golf Course. Originally built as a nine-hole links course in 1916, the club hired Mr. Ross in 1919 to redesign the old nine and design a second nine holes on recently purchased land west of Parker Road. The resulting eighteen hole course covers 6,022 yards with a par of 70. The par five fourth hole takes the players to the very edge of North Bay with its great views. The tenth hole, a 418 yard par four, has been described as one of the outstanding par four holes in New England.
For many of the early years, there was a caddy camp on the lake near the 18th tee. Young boys from the city would spend summers there earning money and learning the game.
Donald Ross returned to Osterville in 1927 to design and build the Oyster Harbors Golf Course on the gated community of Oyster Harbors on Great Island. Oyster Harbors was described by Mr. Ross as one of his favorite layouts. Playing 6,800 yards to par 72, the course includes many fairway bunkers and offers scenic water views.
Larry Gavrich, who writes a blog called Golf Community Reviews, reminisced about a round at Oyster Harbors: “As we teed off in balmy weather, I was tempted to ask my golfing partner, ‘Is this heaven? 'Nah,’ he most likely would have responded, ‘it’s just Oyster Harbors.’” Gavrich went on to comment, “The golf course transports you back to the early part of the 20th Century when golf architects didn’t plow up the land into unnatural moguls or force fit the course between a group of homes. Mother Nature did much of the work for Donald Ross at Oyster Harbors.
Although both golf courses are private, there are public opportunities to play. The Osterville Village Library hosts an Annual Golf Tournament in the Fall at the Wianno Club Golf Course.
by Bob Bownes
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