Golf, which has become a popular American pastime, has this week made a start on the Vineyard, and Mr. B. S.
Golf was first played on Martha’s Vineyard in 1893, when six holes were laid out near the West Chop lighthouse. The first golf course in Edgartown was laid out in a cow pasture in 1897, cows being numbered among the hazards. Oak Bluffs was not far behind, early courses being put in play at East Chop and also where the present Martha’s Vineyard Country Club has its eighteen hole course. In general the rise of golf was coincident with the decline of agriculture, and as cows lost their pastures, golfer gained a course.
Editor, Vineyard Gazette:
Permit me to express my interest in your account of early golfing on Martha’s Vineyard, as described in your issue of August 7th. May I also venture to add an item or two relative to the Edgartown situation.
Golf is such an indispensable part of Island recreation that it seems impossible to imagine the Vineyard without it. However, in the nineties the game was played only by a few ambitious souls who now with excusable pride call themselves the founders of golf here. The various courses on the Island have no very definite dates to make their beginnings, as long before the clubs were officially founded, the game was being played on semi-pastures and fields.
The newest of the Vineyard’s three golf courses is just two years old. Its nine greens checker some of the most beautiful of the rolling lands of Edgartown, well beyond the settled blocks of the town on the northwest, and overlooking Vineyard Sound, Trapp’s Pond and numerous bits of memorable landscape. In scenic quality the course was, from the start, unusual. In its technical development, from the standpoint of the golfer, it now has many claims to distinction.
The Edgartown Golf Club has opened its “Pineside Links” for the season of 1907. The nine hole course measures 2,500 yards. Every effort will be made to render conditions the best possible. Membership fees entitling to full privileges for year, beginning June 1, are: Men, $4.00; Ladies, $2.00; Families, $10.00; Families and Transient Guests $12.00; Visitors 25c per day. “No game shall be played on Sunday.” The officers are: President, Mr. John R. Hanmer; Deputy Treasurer, Mr. C. F. Shurtleff; Secretary, Rev. F. M. Cutler.
The Edgartown Golf and Tennis Club has opened its links at “Pineside,” a little to the north of upper Main street. The course is 2,540 yards long, and is, in the opinion of experts, an unusually successful reproduction of golfing condition on the downs of Scotland, where the game originated. A tennis court is projected for the near future. Membership in the Club, entitling one to all privileges, costs, for men $4.00, for women $2.00 and for children under fifteen $1.50 per year. Guests’ tickets may be had at 25c each. The treasurer is Mr. John E. White.
