OAK BLUFFS, Mass. — Farm Neck Golf Club on Martha’s Vineyard has reopened following an extensive, unifying renovation from architect Mark Mungeam, whose work better accentuates and refines the property’s sandy, seaside environs while opening up long views over the salt-water Sengekontacket Pond.
Mungeam’s Contribution to Farm Neck
“It’s no secret that the two nines at Farm Neck were rather dissimilar, as they were built by different architects, five years apart,” says Mungeam, ASGCA, who’s been consulting to Farm Neck GC for more than 20 years; he refashioned all 18 greens in 2012-13.
“We agreed it was high time we bit the bullet, cut back the forest obscuring the ocean views, and replaced it with vegetation and dunes features indigenous to the island.
Farm Neck’s Renovation
“At the same time, we’ve added more fairway turf out there — nearly all of it in widening the playing corridors. Farm Neck has always been one of the most picturesque courses in the country, in part because it’s a unique hybrid design on sandy, coastal terrain. That aesthetic we wouldn’t dare touch. In fact, we’ve doubled down by accenting each hole with sand and native grasses at the edges.”
Golf History of Farm Neck
While formalized golf has been played on this property since 1897, the first nine at Farm Neck GC opened in 1976. Designed by Mungeam’s former partner and mentor, the late Geoffrey Cornish, this original loop was joined by another, designed by Patrick Mulligan, in 1980. The combined 18 was quickly hailed as that rare bird: a seaside, resort course every bit the aesthetic equal of any private club.
Farm Neck’s Membership and Public Access
Farm Neck is, in fact, a semi-private club with a diverse and vibrant membership. In the U.K. style, the public is welcome all year round, even if members tend to make tee times rather scarce in July and August.
“It gets pretty crazy here in high summer,” attests General Manager Tim Sweet. “But most of the members will tell you: Martha’s Vineyard is truly glorious in the shoulder seasons. It’s unhurried and uncrowded in May and June. The golf course goes technicolor in September and October. We routinely play here through Thanksgiving and beyond. It’s also worth mentioning that accommodations out here are far more reasonable off season.
The Road to Sustainability at Farm Neck
“Folks like to talk about making things that are more sustainable, but working on an island requires more than talk,” the architect says. “Bringing sod to Farm Neck requires cutting it somewhere, shipping it by truck to Wareham, offloading it to another truck, then bringing that vehicle across on the ferry. That’s expensive and it uses a huge amount of energy.
“At Farm Neck, we significantly reduced our sod imports by ‘flipping’ existing turf. This is a big property, some 425 acres in all. We would identify native grasses along the edges of the course, remove it with a sod cutter, roll it up where we could, put it on carts and move it to these new naturalized areas. We also saved and re-deployed every last bit of fescue and bluestem from areas disrupted by the renovation. When we rebuilt the tees, we saved that bentgrass and used it to expand the fairways — maybe 10 acres’ worth.
“People ask me what native grasses we used to build these new areas. I don’t even know! There’s a lot of fescue and little blue stem — the rest we’d need a botanist to identify. But it’s native. We found it growing on site, so we know it will thrive here. Of late, the state of Massachusetts has also been very encouraging when it comes to restoring what it calls ‘sand-plain grassland habitat.’ That is exactly what we’ve done here.”
Learn More about Farm Neck
Learn more at www.farmneck.net.
