Wenham Country Club

Detailed description of Wenham Country Club

Wenham Country Club is a Semi-Private, 18 hole golf course located in Wenham, Massachusetts.

Wenham Country Club first opened for play in 1899.

The following description was written by John Shimer, staff writer for www.newburyportnews.com.

At the turn of the 19th century, several teenage caddies from the prestigious Myopia Hunt Golf Club in South Hamilton decided they wanted a place of their own to play. Soon thereafter, in the neighboring town of Wenham, construction began on Tarr's Pasture in 1899 for a nine-hole course where Wenham Country Club would eventually come to rest. Twenty-five years later, the back-nine was leased and erected, and ever since, the club has continued to undergo projects to improve the layout.

Standing at just 4,554 yards from the back of the men's tees, the par-65 course is just as it sounds, quite short. With five par-3s on the front and three more on the back, Wenham feels almost like an elongated par-3 course.

What works for the course particularly well in this capacity, though, is the ability for golfers to work on their short game with a wide variety of shot selections through different angles Wenham forces players to take into its challenging greens.

No two holes have the same feel. For example, the longest hole on the course, No. 11, the 413 par-5 may appear short, but its narrow fairway off the elevated tee in to a deep valley before escalating back uphill rapidly to the elevated green adds a higher degree of difficulty than one would perceive simply by looking at the scorecard. Venturing to the very next hole, the 186-yard par-3 No. 12, players must account for two key factors off the elevated tee — the deep bunker that protects the front of the green on the left and the positioning of the pin due to the two-tiered green.

However, the one main staple point from start to finish is the undulating terrain of Wenham, which provides many blind shots at different vantage points throughout the course. No hole better embodies Wenham's various blind shots than the par-4, 278-yard No. 8. The classic risk-and-reward hole, with a sharp dog-leg left, lets players risk taking the short route over the trees down to the hole, but the safe play is out to the elevated fairway from where yet another somewhat blind shot still must be played into a small green. Players must be aware here of golfers teeing off from hole No. 6, which almost creates a cross-fire effect on the course.

Overall, Wenham Country Club has good solid fairways, small greens and tough blind shots that force players to think about how they are playing and really work on their iron play. A great place to bring your kids or your wife or perhaps work on the area of your game in which 80 percent of your shots are scored — the chipping and putting part — Wenham is a solid location to get your game back in gear.