Cape Arundel Golf Club

Overview: Cape Arundel Golf Club in Kennebunkport is a Walter J. Travis design overlooking the Kennebunk River. The course has a compact, strategic parkland character, with natural hazards, contoured greens and carefully placed bunkers doing more work than sheer length. Travis’s routing was intended to provide interest for players of different abilities, and the short scorecard does not mean the design is simple. Angles into the greens, the shape of the putting surfaces and the relationship between the fairways and river-side land create the main challenge. The result is a course whose interest comes from architecture and setting rather than from modern championship scale.

History: Cape Arundel was founded in 1896 as the Kennebunkport Golf Club, but the original course had outlived its usefulness by the early 1920s. The club then engaged Walter Travis to create a new layout, and the 18-hole course was expanded into its present footprint around 1921 and 1922. Travis was a U.S. and British Amateur champion who later became one of the most influential early American course architects. The club and course were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, recognising the property’s architectural and cultural importance.

Did You Know? The historic clubhouse was first constructed in 1900 and was renamed 41 House in 2011 in honour of George H.W. Bush. Bush was also Cape Arundel’s club champion in 1947, linking the clubhouse and course to a long presidential history.