Sankaty Head Golf Club

Overview: Sankaty Head Golf Club occupies the eastern end of Nantucket, where open ground, sandy soil and the Atlantic create a genuine coastal links setting. Emerson Armstrong’s routing moves through exposed fairways and natural rises rather than relying on dramatic earthworks. The nearby Sankaty Head Lighthouse gives the course a distinctive visual reference, while wind direction and firm running ground can change the character of a hole from one round to the next. At 6,625 yards and par 71, the course asks for thoughtful lines and controlled approaches as much as raw distance.

History: The club’s early story dates to 1921, when the project was taking shape on Nantucket. H. Emerson Armstrong designed the course and oversaw its development, and the course opened for play in 1923. The layout’s setting was central to its identity from the beginning: sandy, rolling terrain and the island’s persistent wind supplied the natural ingredients for a links-style course. Sankaty has since become one of the best-known private golf settings in New England, while retaining a strong sense of place on the island’s eastern shore.

Did You Know? Armstrong is often credited with making Sankaty Head his only major course design. The lighthouse beside the property was first lit in 1850 and still helps define the horizon from the eastern part of the course. That combination of a young twentieth-century golf course and a nineteenth-century maritime landmark makes Sankaty’s landscape unusually easy to recognize.