{"id":32,"date":"2009-11-15T06:00:09","date_gmt":"2009-11-15T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tomharack.com\/?p=32"},"modified":"2010-09-22T09:45:42","modified_gmt":"2010-09-22T14:45:42","slug":"miacomet-shows-common-touch-in-rarefied-setting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tomharack\/golf\/courses-and-travel\/32\/miacomet-shows-common-touch-in-rarefied-setting","title":{"rendered":"Miacomet shows common touch in rarefied setting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A reliable, familiar destination is a wholly understandable impulse in choosing a golf experience, especially when time, and perhaps money, are at a premium.\u00a0 But having one\u2019s expectations confounded is often as entertaining as having them confirmed.\u00a0 So it was with a recent trip to Miacomet Golf Course, on Nantucket, off Cape Cod.<\/p>\n

Even if your first-hand acquaintance with Nantucket is confined to the bawdy lyrics of a locker-room limerick, you know that as a favorite vacation spot for rich and famous Eastern Seaboard denizens, the real estate has to be among the most expensive anywhere to be found.\u00a0 And for golfers, even the names of the island\u2019s courses \u2013 Miacomet, Sankaty Head, and Nantucket Country Club \u2013 have a venerable, larger-than-life aura to them.<\/p>\n

The latter two are avowedly private, but Miacomet \u2013 from a Native American word for \u201cthe meeting place\u201d — has a refreshingly common touch, and not simply because it is the only public course around.\u00a0 The original nine holes, in fact, were laid out not by a luminary of the golden age of golf architecture, but by a local farmer named Ralph Marble in 1964, part of a modest recreation complex on the site.\u00a0 The entire parcel was purchased by the Nantucket Land Bank Council, the current owner, and, after copious debate about how best to use the precious resource, nine holes were added in 2003.\u00a0 Designed by Howard Maurer, a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Geoffrey Cornish and Brian Silva until hanging out his own shingle in 1997, the new holes are interspersed with the old track rather than added as a completely new side.<\/p>\n

For all that, Miacomet exudes a \u201ctraditional\u201d ambience beyond its years, due mostly to design elements we tend to associate with so many classic courses.\u00a0 Fairways are tight and firm, frequently delineated by tall fescue grasses, and the predominantly flat topography and characteristically windy conditions \u2013 how to put this? — simulate linksland play.<\/p>\n

The older holes, in particular, have features reminiscent of a bygone era.\u00a0\u00a0 Approach alleys to greens are typically unprotected by bunkers and other hazards, thus inviting shots of various trajectories, but, at an average of 3,000 square feet, putting surfaces are half the size of those on the new holes.\u00a0 Bunkering, while not of pot-like dimensions, is generally not as wide or as deep as more modern configurations, suggestive of the \u201cblown out\u201d bunkers on courses fashioned without mechanized earth-moving equipment.<\/p>\n

There are only three sets of tees \u2013 designated back, middle, and forward \u2013 ranging from 6,831 to 5,159 yards, par 72, and from slope 123 to 118.\u00a0 The course\u2019s periphery is blessedly free of residential or commercial structures.\u00a0 Even the clubhouse, with a restaurant favored by locals and capable of hosting weddings and corporate outings, is discreet and unassuming \u2013 more Shinnecock than Riviera or Westchester.<\/p>\n

Not only can gusty winds make the slope rating seem a bit disingenuous, Miacomet has a number of quirks, including consecutive par 5s on the front nine, and memorable holes.\u00a0 Chief among these is No. 14, a 495-yard par 5 that requires either two world-class whacks or some uncommon restraint, as a water hazard that impinges from the left side of the fairway demands that a truly safe lay-up be struck with a short iron.\u00a0 There are also three par 3s that play longer than 200 yards from the back tees; and although No. 8, at 233 yards, is the longest, No. 3 — 213 yards into the prevailing breeze — seems just as difficult.<\/p>\n

And as a test of golf, Miacomet stands to get better:\u00a0 Maurer is currently working on plans to make the older holes more congruent with the newer ones.\u00a0 Specific objectives of the renovation are to standardize the contours and size of the green complexes and bunkering, to make the layout more of a piece.<\/p>\n

Finally, while the round of golf may always be the main event, the best of golf adventures entail a correspondingly enjoyable commute to and from the course.\u00a0 This was the case with our trip to Miacomet, which began with a chilly, below-deck ferry ride from Harwich Port at dawn and ended with a gloriously sun-washed, open-air return trip in the late afternoon.\u00a0 Nantucket Village\u2019s upscale quaintness added to the quintessentially New England charm.<\/p>\n

It made for the perfect one-day excursion, though a multi-day stay is certainly not without its appeal.\u00a0 Miacomet Golf Course (www.miacometgolf.com<\/a>, 508-325-0333) partners with Nantucket Island Resorts (www.nantucketIslandresorts.com<\/a>, 1-800-islands), proprietors of a half-dozen accommodations on the island, in arranging both, as well as special events.\u00a0 For information on transportation options to Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha\u2019s Vineyard, try www.smartguide.org.<\/p>\n

# # #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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