The Vineyard Golf Club - Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, USA
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• The 4th Donald Steel course completed in North America
• Major environmental hurdles crossed to complete project
• Lovely rolling sandy site is perfect for a Steel course

The 11th green

These are the words of Donald Ross in a piece that was published in his lost commentaries "Golf Has Never Failed Me". He could have been writing it about the land on which the course for the Vineyard Golf Club on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts was built. Our first sight of the land was in June 1999 and it became immediately apparent that the land, with its heathy character, was perfect for the creation of a top class course in the mould of the great Surrey heathland courses in England and those designed by Ross himself. It would be a course that blends easily into the landscape, one whose character is dictated by the quality of the land and not by the impact of the bulldozer.


The fescues along the 11th

The approvals process for the course was arduous and involved commitments to limit the overall area of managed turf, to use no pesticides and to apply only organic fertilisers. This meant that the course would be maintained along traditional amounts of irrigation and fertiliser compared to most modern courses. The design, therefore, encourages bump and run golf with open green entrances, no forced carries and fairways of generous width. That said, it is a course that rewards the player who manoeuvres himself into the correct spot from the tee to gain the best line in. It will be a thinker's course rather than a slogger's course. Most players will prefer to play from the middle tees, but the course can be stretched to more than 7000 yards.

In common with all of our courses, the detailed design of the greens, green surrounds and bunkers are the key to the way that the course will play. The revetted bunkers immediately make the course look different from most of its modern counterparts, whilst the closely mown green surrounds will make the course a thorough test of the short game.

Another distinctive feature of the design has been the creation of substantial blocks of open heath habitat. There is already a large open area called the Frost Bottom which is an dry river bed dating back to the last ice age. It is colonised by dwarf scrub oak plants, no more than chest high and it is home to a pair of nesting Northern Harriers, birds of prey that are on the endangered species list. They love this open terrain and a further twenty acres have been opened out, removing most trees but leaving the all important ground vegetation to develop into heathland. Not only will this become rich habitat but it creates long views from one hole to another and gives the turf more light and air.