Highland Links

Detailed description of Highland Links

Highland Links is a Public 9 hole golf course located in North Truro, Massachusetts.

The Highland Links golf course first opened for play in 1892. The course was designed by Willard Smith.

Heralded as Cape Cod's oldest golf course, perhaps its most scenic, the Highland Links is one of America s golf treasures, perched high along windswept bluffs overlooking the Atlantic next to the vintage Cape Cod Light. Circumstances have keep it a genuine links, as close to the Scottish tradition found anywhere in the eastern United States, with deep natural rough, Scotch broom, heath, non irrigated open fairways, and spectacular ocean views. A redesign was implemented in 1913 by New Yorker and frequent visitor J. Henry McKinley. By 1955 the links had been refurbished again by owner Hal Conklin. When John Kennedy's Cape Cod National Seashore was conceived in the 1960's Highland became Federal property and leased to the Town of Truro.

Par for the course is 35. From the back tees the course plays to 2720 yards. From the forward tees the course measures 2280 yards. The longest hole on the course is # 6, a par-5 that plays to 464 yards. The shortest hole on the course is # 9, a par-3 that plays to 136 yards from the back tees.

Watch out for # 5, a 380 yard par-4 challenge and the #1 handicap hole on the course. The easiest hole at Highland Links is # 9, the 136 yard par-3.

#1 demands a drive over moors land: in the background are several FAA flight service domes, part of a former World War II Air Force surveillance station.

#2 is a dramatic shot from an elevated tee, a par-5 down into a unique beach canyon surrounded by Rosa Ragusa and guarded over by a medieval granite tower—a memorial to 19 century singer Jenny Lind that stands solemnly above the fairway, adding to the Moorish flair at Highland.

#3 greenside offers a stunning glimpse of the sea.

#4 runs back over heath land.

#5, straight par-4 is reminiscent of Bermuda.

#6 is the longest hole and Highland s signature, with its renown cliff tee 1,130 feet above the Atlantic.

#7 is the Cape Cod or "Highland" Light - the Cape's oldest beam dating from 1767 and backdrop for the 170 yard #7.

#8, cross Lighthouse Road to the 8th tee and gaze in the distance over the moors to the landmark Provincetown Tower, a monument to the Pilgrims who landed there before settling at Plymouth.

#9. the finishing hole- it s tee box near the rear door of the old Highland House, now the Truro Historical Museum, is a par 3 pitch to a notorious two-tiered green.

Alistair Cook called Highland Links "the most perfect example of the typical British or Scottish links in the United States."