Myopia Hunt Club

Myopia Hunt Club is a historic course on Boston's North Shore that hosted four U.S. Opens between 1898 and 1908. Designed by Herbert C. Leeds, its blind shots, rumpled fairways, and devilish green complexes offer a glimpse into golf's earliest American chapter.

Myopia Hunt Club is a place where the past is not merely preserved but actively inhabits every acre of the property. Nestled in the rolling countryside of South Hamilton, Massachusetts, roughly thirty miles northeast of Boston, the club has maintained its character across nearly a century and a half with a stubbornness that borders on defiance. The golf course, designed by an amateur architect who learned his craft through intuition and observation rather than formal training, hosted four of the first fourteen United States Open Championships and remains today a fascinating, idiosyncratic test that rewards imagination and penalizes complacency. The club's origins predate golf entirely. The Myopia Club was founded in 1875 in Winchester, Massachusetts, by a group of Harvard-affiliated sportsmen, several of whom were noted for their poor eyesight. The name was a self-deprecating joke -- "myopia" being the medical term for nearsightedness -- reportedly inspired by the difficulty certain founding members had spotting foxes during early hunts without their spectacles. Among the key figures was the Prince family: four brothers -- Gordon, Charles, Morton, and Frederick -- all of whom wore glasses and shared a passion for outdoor sport. The club initially focused on tennis, boating, and social gatherings before the hunting contingent took firmer hold. In 1882, J. Murray Forbes formally established the Myopia Hunt Club as a foxhunting organization, and the club soon relocated to the Hamilton area, settling on its present site by the early 1890s. The property encompassed rolling terrain ideally suited to equestrian pursuits, and foxhunting -- later transitioning to drag hunts using scent trails -- became central to the club's identity. Polo followed shortly after. Gibney Field, originally used as pasture, was mowed and pressed into service for practice in the summer of 1888, and that fall Myopia held its first official polo match against the Dedham Polo and Country Club. The field remains in use today, making it one of the oldest continuously operating polo grounds in the United States. Golf arrived at Myopia in the mid-1890s, part of the wave of enthusiasm for the Scottish game that swept through northeastern sporting clubs in that decade. In 1894, R.M. Appleton laid out a rudimentary nine-hole course on the property. That same year, a club member named Herbert C. Leeds won the first tournament held at Myopia, on June 18, 1894. Leeds was a former Harvard baseball player with no formal training in golf course design, but he possessed an instinctive understanding of terrain and strategy that would prove remarkably durable. Appointed to the Golf Committee, Leeds was asked to redesign and expand the course, and he threw himself into the task with a thoroughness that would define the next three decades. Leeds expanded the layout to eighteen holes by the late 1890s, and his design philosophy was distinctly punitive. Where he saw wayward shots escaping punishment, he added hazards. The result was a course of eccentric brilliance: four-foot-tall mounds flanking fairways, dozens of seemingly bottomless bunkers with coffin-like proportions, lightning-fast putting surfaces perched on plateaus, blind shots requiring substantial carries over ridgelines, deep swales that could swallow an approach shot, gnarly rough that punished anything off-line, and a pond and paddock that required careful navigation. The greens were tiny by any standard -- some observers have likened them to bathmats -- and their small size, combined with the surrounding hazards, placed an extraordinary premium on iron play and short-game creativity. The course that Leeds built was widely considered, alongside Garden City Golf Club on Long Island, to be the finest in America in the years before the Golden Age of architecture transformed the game. Its reputation drew the attention of the United States Golf Association, which selected Myopia as the venue for four U.S. Open Championships in an eleven-year span. The 1898 U.S. Open was the first, and it was played under unusual circumstances. Because the second nine holes were not yet completed -- they would not be finished until October of that year -- the championship was contested over eight rounds of nine holes on the existing layout. Fred Herd won the title with a total of 328, posting rounds of 84-85-75-84.

Herbert Leeds himself competed, tying for seventh place, a testament to his intimate knowledge of the course he had designed. The 1901 U.S. Open returned to Myopia and produced a standout grueling championships in the event's history. Not a single competitor managed to break 80 in any of the four rounds. Willie Anderson, the Scottish-born professional who would go on to win four U.S. Opens in total, claimed the title with a 72-hole total of 331 -- a score so high that it remains the record for the highest winning total in U.S. Open history. Anderson defeated Alex Smith in an 18-hole playoff, shooting 85 to Smith's 86. The difficulty of the course in the conditions of that week was staggering, and it cemented Myopia's reputation as a severe examination. Willie Anderson returned to win again at Myopia in 1905, posting a total of 314. The 1908 U.S. Open, the final championship held at the club, was won by Fred McLeod. These four Opens established Myopia as one of the foundational venues of American championship golf, and they remain a defining chapter in the club's history. Leeds continued to refine and adjust the course for more than thirty years after those championships, adding hazards, adjusting green complexes, and tinkering with the routing until his influence touched every aspect of the layout. When completed, the course measured approximately 6,539 yards with a par of 72, modest figures that belie its difficulty. The course plays shorter than many modern designs, tipping out today at approximately 6,555 yards, but its challenge is derived not from length but from the precision it demands on every shot.

The first hole sets the tone immediately: a short climb to a blind green that requires trust in one's yardage and line. The second, a 487-yard downhill par five, offers a generous fairway but punishes anyone who misjudges the approach. Throughout the round, golfers encounter hidden greens, central bunkers placed directly in the line of play, and putting surfaces so small and well-defended that even accurate approach shots can spin off into collection areas. The signature hole is the 16th, known as "Paddock," a par three measuring between 140 and 192 yards depending on the tee. The hole drops from an exposed ledge to a sheltered green, requiring a precise carry over broken ground. It is a hole that captures the essence of Myopia: visually intimidating, strategically demanding, and deeply satisfying when executed well. In more recent decades, the club has undertaken careful stewardship of Leeds's design legacy. Beginning in 2011, Gil Hanse and his firm guided a restoration that focused on tree removal and fairway expansions, returning the course closer to its original open character. Hanse's work respected the fundamental quirks and challenges of Leeds's layout while improving turf conditions and sight lines. The restoration recognized that Myopia's value lies precisely in its refusal to conform to modern expectations -- the tiny greens, the blind shots, the coffin bunkers, and the general atmosphere of eccentricity are features, not flaws. Myopia Hunt Club today remains a multi-sport institution. The foxhounds still run, the polo field still hosts matches, and the golf course still confounds and delights players who are willing to engage with its demands. It is a place built by an amateur who trusted his own eye over any theory, tested by four national championships at the dawn of competitive golf in America, and preserved by generations of members who understood that its peculiarities were its greatest assets.