Boston Golf Club

Gil Hanse's walking-only 2005 course in Hingham, built with minimal earthmoving across old quarry ground, ledges and woods south of Boston, in the style of early New England courses.

Boston Golf Club opened in 2005 in Hingham, on the South Shore. Gil Hanse designed it for founders who wanted a private club unlike the others in the area. The property covers more than 300 acres of rolling, wooded land with rock ledges, an old quarry and a former strip mine. The nines sit on opposite sides of a road through the quarry.

Hanse wanted to echo the early New England courses, and the sand-and-gravel base let him move very little earth. Fairways follow the existing ground, bunkers are edged with bracken and native grass, and the greens are open in front but heavily contoured. Mining spoil became mounds beside one stretch of holes. Darius Oliver singled out how believable the shaping is.

The course is walking only and the elevation changes make it a hard walk. It closes with a par 3: the 18th plays about 187 yards over a grassy waste area to a tiered green. In 2023 the club lengthened that green by 30 yards. Boston Golf Club has appeared in Golf Digest's top 100 since 2011, and it is often cited as a sign of where Hanse's career was headed.

Holes to know

7

Par 3

A precise carry over a sprawling waste area to the green.

18

Par 3 · 187 yd

An unusual par-3 finish over a grassy waste area to an elevated, tiered green; the green was extended by 30 yards in 2023.

Design history

• 2023: green on the par-3 18th extended by 30 yards